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Hoggard the hat-trick hero

Sunday, April 4 2004

A superb Matthew Hoggard hat-trick was the undoubted highlight of the third day's play in the third test match between the West Indies and England at the Kensington Oval, Barbados today - a day when England once again cruised to victory in decisive style.

The West Indies resumed this morning on 21-1 with an enormous if familiar weight resting on the shoulders of Brian Charles Lara. Hoggard started proceedings bowling to Daren Ganga who was repeatedly found wanting against England’s seam attack. Unfortunately for the home side, in that aspect he was far from alone.

Steve Harmison struck Lara an early sickening blow on the elbow and whether it was this or the general precariousness of the West Indian position in the series which caused the captain to go into his shell it is impossible to tell, but in the morning session Lara seemed to be holding an inevitable England victory at bay single-handed.

Lara, though, could not face every ball, and the remainder of the West Indian batting line-up is in such woeful touch that there was always an end to chip away at. Ganga (11) fell to Hoggard courtesy of a straightforward catch by Thorpe in the slips, but this was merely an appetiser.

With Simon Jones seemingly about to be called into the attack, Hoggard mustered the energy for one more over - one he will remember long after he has hung his boots up for the final time. With his fourth delivery, he produced the perfect away-swinger and Ramnaresh Sarwan (5) could only steer the ball into the waiting hands of Ashley Giles in the gulley to leave the West Indies in familiar circumstances of late on 45-3.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul simply shuffled across in front of a perfectly straight delivery for his first-baller, trapped like a rabbit in car headlights, scarcely daring to look up at the umpire and the inevitable finger. Finally Ryan Hinds, still struggling with gloves and pads as he hurried out to the centre to face the hat-trick ball, was no match for the perfect delivery to a left-hander, pitching on middle and off then moving away. Andrew Flintoff, by far England’s most reliable slip fielder on this tour, was never going to miss the most simple of chances from the regulation outside edge.

Harmison was replaced by Flintoff and the big Lancastrian struck almost immediately with a brute of a delivery into the ribs of Ridley Jacobs. The wicket-keeper obliged by gloving the ball to Mark Butcher to leave the home side in tatters on 48-6 and in dire danger of failing to set any sort of a meaningful target. It was not the first time Jacobs had been dismissed in such a fashion, and it is unlikely to be the last.

The West Indies as a batting unit were being systematically taken apart by hostile fast bowling - the kind of medicine the home side's supporters were used to seeing their heroes dishing out in days of yore. Lara, brave to the last, wore several painful blows for the team before rain mercifully intervened on 58-6.

The truncated afternoon session witnessed a momentary fightback by Lara and Tino Best, a young man who looks to have all the attributes of a decent all-rounder. The pair added a painstaking 32 for the seventh wicket but Lara, repeatedly struck about the body, was unable to break the stranglehold to any great effect. When Trescothick picked up Best off the bowling of Flintoff, there was an air of resignation on the great man’s face.

Following another interruption for rain and an early tea interval, the West Indies soon lost Pedro Collins for a single to a quite desperate run-out. Lara, dropping a short ball at his feet, called for a single to retain the strike. Collins, a little flat-footed, was beaten in the sprint by a diving Nasser Hussain - 81-8.

Lara, sensing that there would be precious little contribution from the other end, took on the Harmison bouncer but only succeeded in giving Michael Vaughan a simple catch at mid on. For the second time in the match, Lara’s brave tenure had occupied the crease for a fraction under two hours but for the second time he had been powerless to go on to the big score his side desperately needed, dismissed for just 33.

Fidel Edwards became Harmison’s third victim of the innings when he was last man out for 2, caught by Nasser Hussain. For the fifth time in recent years and the first time ever in Barbados, the West Indian batting line-up had capitulated to an England side for under a hundred.

With the victory target of just 93 to win inside three days very much in mind, the first ball by Edwards was summarily despatched to the third man boundary by Trescothick. There was a little more fortune about Vaughan's first boundary, edged over the slips from a lifting delivery by Best.

Trescothick lofted a leg-side delivery from Edwards past square leg for four more, then Vaughan pounced on a wayward Best ball and crashed four more past point. With England sitting pretty on 18 without loss and making batting looking very easy for the first time in the match, rain and bad light intervened once again. The champagne would have to wait on ice just a while longer.

Upon the resumption, Michael Vaughan deposited a Tino Best bouncer high into the stand at midwicket, then a half-volley from Edwards was crunched through the covers by the England captain as the openers made light of their target.

Trescothick profited from an Edwards half-tracker to the tune of another six as the England openers went past 50 for the first time in the series. Vaughan despatched Corey Collymore through point for a sublime boundary, but the very next ball played loosely outside off stump and edged a catch to Ridley Jacobs to leave England on 57-1.

Butcher played and missed before opening his account with a neat single to fine leg, then Trescothick, his feet no longer encased in molasses, stroked a ball from Collymore through the covers in fine fashion to move into the thirties. Moments later, a simply glorious on-drive by Trescothick brought him another boundary, this time off Collins as the Somerset opener suddenly found form where previously there had been only indecision.

A Butcher boundary took England to within two of victory before Trescothick (42), according to script, tamely edged Collymore through to Jacobs to resurrect a few of his own personal demons and bring former captain Nasser Hussain to the wicket.

A Butcher single from a Pedro Collins no-ball meant that England had achieved the victory target of 93 with eight wickets and two whole days to spare. The last time England had achieved a series victory in the Caribbean was in 1968. The final game of that historic series started on 28 March - the very day the oldest member of the current squad, Nasser Hussain, was born. How fitting that he was in the middle on this occasion, albeit at the non-striker’s end.

Match summary

England 226 (Thorpe 119*, Edwards 4-70, Collins 3-60) and 93-2
beat
West Indies 224 (Sarwan 63, Chanderpaul 50, Flintoff 5-58, Harmison 3-42)
and 94 (Hoggard 4-35, Harmison 3-35)
by 8 wickets.

Man of the Match - Graham Thorpe (England)

England lead the 4 match series 3-0.


Posted by Eddie