Tino Best, on reaching his half-century, on Sunday

Birmingham: England reached 221 for five at stumps on the fourth day against West Indies, on Sunday, with the third Test heading for a draw despite Tino Best getting the highest ever score by a No. 11 batsman in Test history.

England trails West Indies by 205 runs at Edgbaston, needing another 56 runs to avoid the follow on. West Indies earlier posted 426 all out with Best out for 95.

However, heavy rain is forecast for Monday and with two days already lost to the weather, neither side is likely to have enough time to win.

England stumbled to 49 for three until Kevin Pietersen hit 78 — including one six and 11 fours — and Ian Bell made 76 not out.

Best was West Indies’ most effective bowler with two for 37 despite his disappointment at falling just five runs short of a Test century. Best put on a West Indies record stand of 143 for the last wicket with Denesh Ramdin, who made 107 not out.

As the first two days of this match were washed out, England had to get within 150 runs, rather than 200, and reach 277 to avoid the follow-on.

But when Ravi Rampaul had Alastair Cook trapped infront, they were 13 for one.

Jonathan Trott then played on to West Indies captain Darren Sammy before Best’s first Test in nearly three years got even better.

The fast bowler had England captain Andrew Strauss, trying to cut a ball that was too close to him, brilliantly caught by Darren Bravo at first slip.

England were then 49 for three. But Pietersen and Bell repaired the damage.

Earlier, there was no hint of the torrent of runs to come when West Indies, having resumed on their overnight 280 for eight after losing the toss, saw Rampaul dismissed three balls into Sunday’s play.

Ramdin, himself in Test exile for two years before this series, was then 63 not out.

But Best, who surpassed Zaheer Khan’s 75 for India against Bangladesh at Dhaka in 2004 as the highest Test score by a No. 11, was quickly into his stride.

Best made England pay for their controversial decision to rest new-ball duo James Anderson and Stuart Broad, having already established an unassailable 2-0 lead in this three-match series.

‘Stand-in’ seamers Graham Onions and Steven Finn were driven in the style of a top-order batsman by the 30-year-old Best, whose previous highest Test score was just 27.

Indeed it was Ramdin who was almost out when, on 69, he cut hard at Finn and Pietersen failed to hold a sharp, head-high, chance at gully. Off-spinner Graeme Swann went the same way as the pacemen, cut for two fours in successive balls by the inspired Best. There was no stopping Best, who lofted Tim Bresnan, now England’s senior seamer, over mid-on for four. A single off Bresnan saw Best -- only called up to this tour as a replacement for injured fast bowler Shannon Gabriel -- complete a 44 ball-fifty.

Ramdin’s single off Bresnan, after which he nearly hit the bowler’s head as he waved his bat in celebration, took him to a hundred in 160 balls with nine boundaries.

Best faced just 112 balls with a six and 14 fours. His partnership of 143 with Ramdin was a West Indies record for the 10th wicket in Tests, overtaking the 106 shared by Carl Hooper and Courtney Walsh against Pakistan at St John’s in 1993.