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Carib Beer XI vs England Day 1

Saturday, March 27 2004

Carib Beer XI 129
England 121 - 3

As predicted, England used this game to provide some much needed practice to all of the players who missed the first two tests. So Anderson, Batty, Clarke, Collingwood and Geraint Jones are playing alongside Trescothick, Butcher, Thorpe, Read, Giles and Hoggard. Whilst it seems unlikely that anyone the first XI is in serious danger of being replaced in Barbados, this is still an important opportunity for some of the understudies to show their worth and keep themselves in the selectors' minds. Of the test side, Trescothick and Giles are most obviously in need of a decent performance if only to find some form and confidence.


Trescothick, captaining the side today, followed Vaughan's example by losing the toss and England found themselves in the field. Although Hoggard made an early breakthrough, having Xavier Marshall caught by Batty at short leg, Ganga and Joseph took the score to 73 without undue alarm. At that point, a decent score looked to be on the cards. Instead, England continued their happy knack of taking a cluster of wickets just before lunch, and the hosts' batting collapsed. Anderson had Ganga caught behind for 25, which is rather less than he would have wanted to press his claims for a test recall, and then trapped Willett lbw for 1. Giles had Bravo caught behind attempting a sweep, and England had broken the back of the batting line up in the first session. There was little resistance after lunch. Clarke helped himself to a couple of wickets, Giles claimed his second victim and Hoggard cleaned up the tail to finish with four. The last 9 wickets fell in the space of 56 runs, and the whole innings was over before tea.


When England batted, their main concern was to see Trescothick spend some time in the middle and, for once, he stuck around. Butcher opened with him, and only made 17, which probably didn't bother him unduly. Collingwood came in at 3 and only made it to 20 before being stumped. Thorpe and Trescothick then took the score to 120, with the latter reaching 50 before the captain spoiled a decent afternoon's work by being bowled by Banks shortly before the close. However, he will be relieved to have made some runs against a decent attack and England's supporters will be hoping that this is the start of better things for him on this tour.


Posted by David