Cricket Third Test: Andrew Flintoff, reverse-swinging the old ball, claimed the wicket of Brian Lara to give England the edge on the first afternoon of the third Test at Kensington Oval.
And it was the first of five the England pace man would claim.
The West Indies' captain, playing his best cricket of the series, had hit six fours in making 36 before he flicked outside off stump at the Lancashire all-rounder and saw Mark Butcher snaffle the catch in the gully.
It was an important wicket for England, ending a third-wicket stand of 68 with Ramnaresh Sarwan and leaving West Indies 88 for three after Michael Vaughan had put them in to bat.
However, an unbroken fourth-wicket partnership of 67 between Sarwan (60) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (27) began to repair the damage, the home side going to tea on 155 for three.
But soon after the break Flintoff played his part in Sarwan's downfall by holding a catch off the bowling of Steve Harmison to see him out for just three more runs.
There had been an unseemly scrummage of 42 people surrounding the pitch when Vaughan called correctly for the first time in the series. His decision to field was in keeping with convention - in six of the past nine Tests here sides have been put in to bat - but flies in the face of the outcome of those matches. Last year, Lara put Australia in and they racked up 605 for nine on their way to a nine-wicket win; the previous year Carl Hooper asked New Zealand to bat and they won by 204 runs.
Only one of those insertions resulted in a win.
The reasoning - that the surface offers most help to the pace bowlers on the opening morning so there is a chance to dictate the match from the outset - has to be set against the behaviour of the pitch on the last day, when pace bowlers similarly have been able to exploit low bounce.
It was, of course, the way the great West Indies side used to do things here, but that, with respect to England, is different now.
For the third match in a row, with not a broken digit or dodgy prawn to be found, England fielded an unchanged side.
West Indies, on the other hand, made three changes to the team that lost in Trinidad, with the Smiths, Devon and Dwayne, out for reasons of fitness and form respectively and replaced by Daren Ganga and Ryan Hinds, and Fidel Edwards coming in for Adam Sanford, giving them a high-velocity bowler.
Somehow, the groundsman has injected some pace and bounce into a hitherto moribund surface and, with England coming at them hard, West Indies did indeed struggle in the early stages, not helped by a pair of umpiring blunders.
In only the fifth over, from Matthew Hoggard, Chris Gayle, who might have been caught at midwicket off the same bowler in the day's first over had Vaughan been taller or more athletic, was given a slow, malevolent leg-before death by Rudi Koertzen, though the ball appeared to be both high and missing leg stump.
Worse was to follow seven overs later when Ganga, who had needed 35 tormented minutes to open his account and had been dropped by Graham Thorpe at third slip off Hoggard when eight and was now on 11, stepped back to Harmison, offered no shot and was sent on his way by the other umpire, Darrell Hair.
Replays showed that the ball was passing high enough to clip his thigh pad, as he spent several animated minutes demonstrating to his team-mates back in the pavilion.
At the other end, Lara, looking much less jumpy at the crease than he had in the first two Tests, was playing himself in with care. His appearance at number three was in itself a surprise, the first time he has come in at the fall of the first wicket since the opening Test against Australia in Brisbane over three ago.
With Sarwan, he began the process of resurrecting an innings which had slumped to 20 for two. It was Sarwan who initially provided the impetus as he drove Simon Jones firmly to the extra-cover boundary, whereupon Lara, confident that he was in key with the pace of the pitch, unleashed three boundaries of his own. The first was a hook off Jones, then a cover drive off Flintoff and a back-foot force off Jones, the last two strokes all hands and eyes, the sort that only the best can attempt let alone keep on the ground.
Lara's sudden and unexpected departure brought in Chanderpaul and on 10, with the score at 107 for three, he drove at Flintoff outside off stump and saw Butcher, at third slip now, snatch at the chance and ground it. England might then have broken the partnership when Sarwan, on 43, hooked at Jones, the ball appearing to brush his glove on the way through to Chris Read. But the batsman was quick to proclaim his innocence and Hair gave him the benefit of the doubt.
THIRD TEST
West Indies v England (Barbados)
West Indies First Innings
C Gayle lbw b Hoggard 6
D Ganga lbw b Harmison 11
B Lara c Butcher b Flintoff 36
R Sarwan c Flintoff b Harmison 63
S Chanderpaul c Thorpe b Flintoff 50
R Hinds c Jones b Harmison 5
R Jacobs c sub b Flintoff 6
T Best c Butcher b Flintoff17
P Collins c Trescothick b Jones 7
C Collymore not out1
F Edwards c Read b Flintoff 0
Extras 22
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Total (75.2 overs) ... 224
Fall: 1-6 2-20 3-88 4-167 5-179 6-197 7-198 8-208 9-224 10-224.
Guardian Service
