A couple of days ago, Swann said that England were the Newcastle United of Cricket. Today after the nerve-wracking match, he said they feel like they are the Pakistan of 1992. Going by the six matches that they have played in this edition, they are carving a separate identity for themselves
Chennai has proved to be the lucky pitch for England as they have won both the matches that have been played here. Today too, Strauss had no hesitation in batting as soon as he had won the toss. Both the teams were nervy to begin with as Strauss saw off a maiden by Roach and then saw Smith not making an effort to take catch, running back from midwicket. In between Prior made a good start by driving Benn to cover boundary. He further attacked the same bowler by going for the square cut and a slice. Strauss got into the stride by driving a fuller ball wide of the cover fieldsman
With Benn gifting a few deliveries that Prior was feasting on, Sammy thought it wise to replace him with Russell. Strauss came forward a touch and pulled him to the midwicket fence. The warning bells were ringing clearly for West Indies at this stage. They were close to turning ominous when Sammy in his first over was swung away to deep midwicket for a six
Russell finally made the much needed breakthrough when he had Prior inside edging a straight ball onto his middle stump. All through the World Cup and the ODI series against Australia before that, people were used to watching a dour batsman named Trott. Today devil seemed to have possessed him as for the initial part of his innings he seemed to deal only in boundaries. He got a gift off the very first ball he faced. A fuller delivery on the pads that was gleefully flicked to deep midwicket for a boundary. He followed it up with a couple of boundaries in the same over
With Trott punishing Sammy too, it seemed that England would run away to a score that would be beyond West Indies. Russell then made the crucial breakthrough when he had Strauss rushing into a pull stroke and top edging to midwicket. Gayle had to run back a few yards to take the catch. With Bell coming to the crease, Sammy bought Benn back into the attack. Although Trott reverse swept him for a boundary, he managed to put the brakes on the scoring rate. Bishoo, the debutant drafted straight into a World Cup also found some turn and bounce on the pitch
Bishoo got his wicket in the form of Trott when he beat him in the flight and got a leading edge off his bat to midwicket. Gayle, the fielder positioned there did the rest. As the runs were strangled, Sammy introduced Roach back into the attack. It paid off the very first ball as Roach beat Bell with sheer pace and sent his off stump for a walk
In the very next over Bishoo had Morgan reverse sweeping him. He found the edge and Thomas did the rest behind the stumps. With the dismissal of Bopara to an inside edge pegging back the middle stump, the middle order collapse was complete. The onus then fell on Luke Wright to carry the batting. That he did appreciably mixing caution with aggression
Then as it has happened with most of the England matches this World Cup, the opposition team found a way back in with a wicket. This time it was to a silly piece of running between the wickets where Tredwell failed to respond to Wright’s call
Wright then attacked Bishoo in the arc between sweeper cover and sight screen. He fell for an ambitious hoick to deep midwicket of the same bowler. Bresnan found a few flying off his outside edge to lend a respectability to the total
When West Indies played South Africa, Botha found the outside edge of Gayle’s bat the very first over he bowled. So it was but natural that Strauss would do the same considering he had two off-spinners in the attack. Swann did open the attack along with Bresnan. After a couple of quiet overs, Gayle literally waded into Bresnan by taking eighteen runs off his over which included four boundaries. At the other end Swann was being treated with respect as he found the bounce on the pitch and was bowling in a way to exploit it
Tremlett replaced Bresnan after the eventful over and found himself at the receiving end of the ‘Gayle’storm. With 18 runs being taken from this over, West Indies raced to 50 in the fifth over itself. Strauss with limited options pressed Tredwell into the attack from the other end
Tredwell bought the curtain on the explosive innings when he had Gayle playing for the wrong line and caught him in front of the stumps. Sammy promoted himself in the order and played a few superb bottom handed shots. The one that stood out was the ‘on the walk’ shot that he whipped to deep midwicket of Tredwell. With the entertainment at this end, the wickets of Smith and Bravo fell to needless strokes
By the time Sammy himself was out, the match was turning into a pot-boiler. When Thomas fell, it bought the match changer Pollard to the crease. As he took some time to find the radar, England found it the right time to slip in a couple of maidens. When he did find the radar and blasted a couple of sixes, England would have had their mind on the return flight back home
Swann had other ideas as he caught Pollard in front of the stumps but the replays showed it would be clipping the leg stump. Russell came out and kept the scorecard moving with a few brave and innovative strokes. The pick of his shots being the lofted inside out drive over long-off for a six
When Trott seemingly caught him at long-on, it seemed that there was another twist to the game but the third umpire after going through multiple replays thought that some part of Trott’s body/ clothing had touched the ropes and called it a six. At this stage it seemed that England were mentally out of the game
Just when it seemed all over, the match took another fascinating turn when Russell was adjudged LBW off Tredwell. When Sarwan’s inside edge was lapped up by Bell at short-leg of Swann, the momentum swung England’s way. With Tremlett sliding to his right at mid-off to dismiss Roach off the same over, the match was firmly back in England’s control
And as it happens with tail ender’s, the final wicket fell off a run-out when Trott’s throw from fine-leg beat an attempted couple by Benn. Though they won this match, England would need a result to go their way to get into the knock-outs. South Africa needs to defeat Bangladesh for England to stay further in the competition. And if that does not happen, then England would be praying for an Indian win in the final match of the league stages
In the end it was perhaps fitting that a match that saw savagery in terms of batsmanship had no half century. The highest score was the 49 scored by Russell
Comments
Post a Comment