Pietersen locates his inner ginger

In an age which lends itself to stereotype, Paul Collingwood is without doubt the easiest England cricketer to pigeon-hole. Regardless of the fact that he remains the only Englishman in living memory to have reeled off a double-century in an away Ashes Test, no innings of his goes without being ascribed as grafting, workmanlike or gritty. As if to emphasise his nuts and bolts nature as a cricketer, his trademark leg-side shot is known as "the shovel", in comparison to Pietersen's "flamingo". He's been described in a whole range of ways from tough nut to a blue-collar worker. He's not the only cricketer on the international scene to sport a reddish growth under his helmet, but while Shaun Pollock is "flame headed", our Colly is just a good old ginger. In fact, he's not even the only carrot-top in this England side. Despite the rather yukky blond wash he now sports, no-doubt as part of his campaign to appear more assertive at the crease, the photographic evidence from his early Wawrickshire days is against Ian Bell.

Kevin Pietersen, in his early England days as famous for his "skunk" hairstyle as his big-hitting, came to the crease today with England in a slightly uncertain position. After they had West Indies 5 down and over 300 behind, they had ended up with a lead of just over 100, while Andrew Strauss and Owais Shah, his second neurotic innings unfortunately curtailed, had departed cheaply. It was not quite alarm bells ringing, but another wicket or two and West Indies would have fancied themselves to do an Adelaide. It was an important innings for Pietersen, around whom England's hopes rest rather too much these days, and whose hot-headed failure in the second innings at Adelaide precipitated the slide to defeat.

His first innings was typical Pietersen; having set off apace, blazing into the 20s, he got bogged down by the West Indies' negative line and played his get out of jail free card at the wrong time, failing to pass go with a lazy drive to cover. As he crawled to 20 with Cook similarly becalmed at the other end, England fans must have feared a repeat. However, to his credit, he pulled through, laying the platform to expand in his usual fashion once Cook had gone, his second fifty coming off just 39 balls as he savaged the bowling. It was an innings of unusual maturity, and one which made the difference between England being in a safe position, as they are now, and a perilous one, as they could well have been.

With England a bowler down and fielding only two seamers yet to hit their straps to accompany the excellent Panesar, who today finished up with the best first innings figures by a spinner at Lord's for over 30 years, the forecast for an England victory looks as bleak as the weather one for tomorrow, another factor which could spurn England's hopes. Still, the erratic nature of Harmison, who threw in two horrible wides as well as two unplayable jaffas, one of which Gayle will still be feeling the effects of, means that there is a chance that he, and England, will strike lucky. Equally, there is the possibility that the West Indies batting line-up, which did so well in the first dig, will do as many expected they would and fold miserably.

One thing that does not seem a possibility is that West Indies will chase down 400. Yet they are the last team to have done just that, fairly recently against Australia of all teams. Doomsayers will cite their successful chase led by Gordon Greenidge's double century after David Gower had declared on the final morning in 1988; English optimists will point to last summer at Headingley, where Monty Panesar rolled Pakistan on the last day with only 300 to defend; realists will recall that the last two Lord's Tests have ended with England failing to bowl out the opposition on the final day and find a better way of spending £20.