BRIDGETOWN, April 1: Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan rescued West Indies from another poor start to lift the home side to 71 for two at lunch on day one of the third Test against England.

Trailing 2-0 in the four-match series, West Indies lost Chris Gayle and Daren Ganga to highly dubious lbw decisions but Lara (29 not out) and Sarwan (22 not out) joined forces to add an unbroken 51 for the third wicket.

Having won the toss for the first time in the series, Michael Vaughan put West Indies into bat on a relatively grassy pitch in hazy sunshine on Thursday. His decision looked a good one early on as Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison extracted bounce and swing to trouble both West Indies openers.

Gayle almost fell to the fourth ball of the innings when his chip off Hoggard just eluded Vaughan at mid-wicket, but his reprieve was only temporary as he was given out lbw by umpire Rudi Koertzen off Hoggard for six.

Television replays showed it was both high and missing leg stump. Surprisingly, Lara elevated himself up the order to number three and the captain was off the mark first ball, flicking Hoggard to fine leg for two runs.

Ganga, recalled in place of the injured Devon Smith, survived a much better lbw shout from Harmison when on nought and was then dropped by Graham Thorpe, diving to his left at second slip, when on seven. But luck turned England's way again shortly afterwards when Darrell Hair gave Ganga out lbw for 11 to Harmison, despite replays showing it was high and missing off stump.

That left the home side in a perilous position on 20 for two, but as the pitch appeared to lose some of its pace, Sarwan and Lara, who came into the match with just 31 runs to his name from four innings, began to look more at ease.

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