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Flintoff leads England fightback

Wednesday, April 14 2004

West Indies 751 for 5 declared
England 285 and 145 for 0


With a day to play, England are as well placed as they had dared hope to draw this game. Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick produced their best batting of the series to remain undefeated at close of play, and the side should be confident about surviving the remaining 90 overs on a pitch that is still playing pretty well. Much of the credit for their better than expected position must go to Andrew Flintoff, who earlier made an undefeated 102 over five hours and 224 balls. He had several fortunate escapes, but the bottom line is he contributed almost as many as the rest of England's top 5 in their first innings and, without his innings, his side would probably be out for the count. England's supporters will hope that he's permanently acquired the patience that allowed him to play this innings.


England started the day looking to score another 600 to obtain a small lead before dismissing the West Indies for 50 to set up the whitewash. Failing that, they knew they needed to bat out the remaining two days to secure a draw. Not for the first time, they started poorly, with Edwards bowling Geraint Jones off his pads after the wicket keeper had added only six to his overnight score. Gareth Batty, who replaced him, has shown in his previous tests that he is capable of sticking around. He looked reasonably comfortable for 10 overs, but perished chasing a wide one from Collins and was caught by Gayle for a disappointing 8. He was replaced by Matthew Hoggard, who resisted for almost an hour before edging Collins to Jacobs. At lunch, England were 231 for 8, the new ball was due, and the innings was not expected to last much longer.


Somehow, Flintoff had survived the pre-lunch session. He was lucky to be there at all of course, after Lara's miss the previous evening. Today he was dropped twice, first by Powell and then, off his own bowling, by Collins. Previously, an edged drive had flown through the slips and an airy pull fell just short of the man at mid-wicket. However, he was playing patiently and, in between the let-offs, he played some attractive shots to reach his first 50 of the series. By lunch, he had reached 68. After lunch, he looked far more solid. He found a willing ally in Simon Jones who, as in Barbados, showed the technique and temperament to stick around. Flintoff was, for the most part, relatively restrained, although one over from Edwards did go for 17. He eventually reached his third test century with a succession of ones and twos and, even if he had enjoyed more than his share of good fortune in getting there, he alone from the top six had batted for long enough to give England a chance of saving the game. He and Jones batted for an hour after lunch without any real alarm until the Welshman had to retire injured after a blow from Best on his forearm. Harmison came and quickly went, bowled by Best, and Jones made a brief reappearance before being trapped lbw by Hinds. The deficit of 466 was still huge, but England now only had to last for four and a bit sessions to survive.


The final session was expected to be a torrid one for the English batsman. It may have turned out that way had Trescothick not survived a confident shout for caught behind before he had scored, but, instead, it was very comfortable. For the first time this series, the openers took their side past the 100 mark and they were rarely troubled. It helped that Collins was off the field for the whole session, and that Edwards missed much of it, but even so the bowling was lacklustre. Maybe they were tired after a day and a half in the field, or maybe they were demotivated by their captain's absence for the final hour or so. Whatever the reason, both Vaughan (61) and Trescothick (74) were able to reach their highest scores of the series without undue alarm.


Posted by David