England’s entertainers squeak to a crucial World Cup win in a barmy, low scoring thriller.
World Cup Group B, Chennai:
England 243 (48.4 overs) beat West Indies 225 (44.4 overs) by 18 runs
England today kept alive their hopes of lifting their second limited overs World Cup in under a year with an 18 run win over the West Indies.
A dramatic back and forth encounter saw England, back-to-back Ashes winners and Twenty20 World Cup holders, reprising the madness of their previous fixtures in a match awash with moments of supreme tension, flashes of genius and dunderheaded incompetence from both sides.
Again, batting first, England laboured to a low score on a decent wicket. Posting only 243 despite a good brisk start from their openers and an eccentric and unusually rapid top scoring 47 from 38 from Jonathan Trott, England’s innings stalled amid the now customary middle order collapse.
Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara fell cheaply, Bopara one of a handful to be clean bowled, while Ian Bell scored an extraordinarily difficult and painful 27. Bell, a classy and talented batsman, has looked in no kind of nick during this tournament and seems, at present, to be unable to replicate the quiet, free-scoring dominance he exhibits in domestic cricket. Still his 27 runs, even at such a low scoring rate, were a scarce commodity in an innings and in fact a match in which no batsman was able to score his half century.
- Luke Wright fought his way to 44
England’s battling victory today owed a lot to unlikely heroes. The first such performer to put his hand up was Luke Wright, who shared valuable partnerships with Tim Bresnan and James Tredwell at the lower end of the order, while putting on an extremely useful 44 runs on his own.
Much maligned as a bits and pieces cricketer, Wright was never going to successfully step into Freddie Flintoff’s sizeable shoes and become a match-winning all-rounder for his country. He is, to my mind, a very handy one-day player though. Gutsy and wholehearted with both bat and ball, he is a clean, ambitious ball-striker on his day, and you feel he was just getting going after a sticky start when he was pouched in the deep playing an expansive, admittedly agricultural shot.
England failed to see out their overs, laid low by a combination of full, quick bowling, slow sharp turn and poor shot selection, but hobbled to the sort of total which has made watching them in this tournament such an exciting and unpredictable prospect.
The West Indies innings followed a similarly confusing pattern, with Chris Gayle making rapid progress at the head of the run-chase, absolutely taking Chris Tremlett apart before falling to a self-reviewed LBW decision.
England skipper Andrew Strauss broke with his usual conventional conservatism by opening the bowling with spin in the form of Graeme Swann. Swann exacted big turn with the hard new ball, but it was the gentler tweak of Jim Tredwell – the eventual man-of-the-match and another of England’s unlikely trump cards in this odd game- that removed Gayle for 43, scored at better than a run a ball.
Tredwell went on to take 4-48, but for long periods it was difficult to see where England’s wickets would come from.
West Indies captain Darren Sammy scored with unorthodox freedom, having promoted himself up the order. The West Indies strategy in chasing England’s low score seemed to be to blaze away with their T20 biff-merchants early on, and keep their better players, most notably Ramnaresh Sarwan, in reserve to steer them sensibly home. Scoring at over eight an over, for the loss of only a couple of wickets – Gayle’s dismissal, and a smart stumping from Matt Prior to remove Devon Smith- it was a tactic that looked like paying dividends until the introduction of that much-feared destroyer of batting line-ups Ravi Bopara.
Bopara, bowling dibbly-dobbly tight lines in tandem with one of Swann or Tredwell, produced a match-turning spell which saw him at one point with the ridiculous figures of 2 for 4 from 4. This joust, in which England again showed their knack for really throttling the scoring in the middle overs, coincided with a series of 20 consecutive dot balls, Bopara showing why he is so well thought of in the Indian Premier League.
With Tredwell having unseated Darren Bravo, England took a well-timed bowling power play and exerted extreme pressure on the West Indies; in spite of the batting side being well up with the rate, it told. Bopara got a couple to nip back and take the inside edge, first castling Sammy as the captain attempted another heave and then knocking Devon Thomas over. Five wickets had tumbled early in the Windies innings and England looked to suddenly be on top.
As per the game plan though, old head Sarwan and talented young gun Kieron Pollard steadied the ship with a decent partnership. Pollard gave up a very takeable chance off Swann which Bopara, displaying in microcosm why he is such a frustrating cricketer, put down. It might have been a big moment, Pollard being as destructive a force as anyone in this powerful line-up when he gets going, but Ravi received a reprieve when Swann struck, dismissing the big man LBW, in his next over. The drop had only cost Bopara, and England, the price of a dismissive and chastening 6 down the ground when England’s talismanic spinner gave it maximum Swannage and turned the ball past Pollard’s hanging bat. Like Gayle, Pollard burned a review to try and keep his wicket intact.
- Unlikely matchwinner James Tredwell celebrates
The game at this point should have been England’s to wrap up but as against Bangladesh and Ireland they had no answer to tail-end partnership of measured nurdling (from Sarwan) and raw explosive hitting from the long handle of Andre Russell. England were without the reverse swing of Jimmy Anderson, and with Russell racing along to 49, and Sarwan looking distinctly untroubled they looked very much in danger of having their exit from the tournament confirmed by another dispiriting defeat.
Then, from seemingly nowhere, as against South Africa, England wrestled the game improbably back to their favour. Russell’s swashbuckling innings came to a conclusion, another scalp for Tredwell, and very shortly after Sarwan fell bat/pad to Swann. Swann claimed his second in that over with Kemar Roach playing a daft lofted shot down the ground, to be neatly caught, low and to his right by giant bowler Chris Tremlett. Gayle and Pollard’s decisions to review the umpires’ decisions took on a new significance too, when it appeared that Russell, taking the game away from England, might have had cause to review his own dismissal.
England wrapped up a spirited and surprising turn in the field, brought to life with spin and pressure at key moments, with the run out of spinner Sulieman Benn. It capped a tremendous effort in the field and a stunning end to a breathless game, but it cannot mask the ongoing problems in an unsettled, confused-looking England camp, or the fact that this is a game that England could very, very easily have lost.
There will have to be a marked improvement in England’s performances, and those rested (or dropped) today will have to return and produce if England are to live up to their pre-tournament billing as contenders for the 2011 Cricket World Cup.
