BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP):

England captain Andrew Strauss is confident his team can bounce back from a morale-sapping draw in Antigua a week ago and produce a series-levelling victory over the West Indies in the fourth Test which begins at the Kensington Oval today.

The West Indies remain 1-0 up following their opening win in Jamaica and two contrasting draws in Antigua - with the second Test being abandoned due to the state of the outfield and the third providing a thrilling finale in which the home team just hung on to avoid defeat.

"I think we showed in Antigua that we're capable of putting the West Indian team under pressure," Strauss said yesterday. "We just need to go that step further this week.

"We're certainly hopeful that the momentum of this series is changed and we can continue putting those guys under pressure in the first half of this Test match."

But he added: "I don't think we underestimate the size of the challenge ahead of us."

West Indies skipper Chris Gayle is keen to put the Antigua matches out of his team's mind as they chase a rare series victory.

The West Indies have not won a series at home since beating Bangladesh in 2004 and the Caribbean side last defeated England in a series, home or away, in 1998.

Disadvantage

"After the first game, we picked up that momentum and then after we went to the Sir Viv Stadium, that actually changed things after that disaster there," Gayle said. "The change of venues kind of put us on the back foot there. It was a disadvantage for us and it was hard to actually get that mindset going again.

"We're looking past those two (Antigua) games now. I'm sure this time around, we'll come out running. We know how important this game is ... . It's an opportunity for us to actually try and build on this and not give in to England as much as possible," Gayle added.

The West Indies seem set to play the same team thatappeared in Antigua but England suffered a key loss of all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, ruled out by a hip injury.

"I think it's a big loss to them. He's a key player," Gayle said. "The stats might not show it in the last two games, he hasn't really got among the runs or got a lot of wickets.

"But we know how important 'Freddie' Flintoff is for England. I'm sure he'll be missed, especially in the bowling department."

Strauss said Flintoff's absence might fire up the rest of the team.

"If you rest all your hopes on one man, sometimes the rest of the team don't take the responsibility they need to take," the England captain said. "We found when he hasn't played before, the bowlers have stood up and performed and the batting unit has performed pretty well as well.

"Clearly, we'd love him in the side but that's not the situation at the moment. I don't think that affects our chances of winning. I still think we have a very good chance of winning."

Tourists

An overwhelming English presence in the stands will also lift the tourists, a fact not lost on home skipper Gayle.

"We can look at it like if we're playing at Lord's," he said. "It's just like the last time we played here, it was a similar thing, totally English fans and we saw a similar thing in Antigua as well."