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Batty spins England to win.

Monday, March 29 2004

Gareth Batty today added to the pressure on Ashley Giles as his 5-53 clinched the win for England.

The Carib Beer XI resumed on 51-1, still 167 behind England, but Daren Ganga and Sylvester Joseph started well against the second string England attack, as first innings hero Matthew Hoggard was rested for the 3rd and 4th Tests.

Ashley Giles was the man to make the breakthrough, as Joseph gave Hoggard a catch and was dismissed for a round 50.

Opener Ganga's resistance then ended in a caught and bowled to Batty for 39 and the home side were 4 down at lunch when Giles got Tonito Willett caught at short fine leg by the substitute fielder Steve Harmison, although quite why England's spearhead was being utilised in such a role is beyond this correspondent.

After lunch Batty took over, tracking Dwayne Bravo LBW in the first over of the afternoon, and quickly adding the wickets of Denesh Ramdin, Omari Banks and Dave Mohammed to reduce the score to 193-8, which became 195-9 when the forgotten man James Anderson cleaned up Ravi Rampaul.

A spirited rearguard saw 34 be added for the last wicket to at least make England bat again, as Anderson picked up his 3rd wicket in bowling Dwight Washington - but the total of 229 left a target of just 12.

England took just 16 balls in reaching the target, but did lose the wickets of both makeshift opener Paul Collingwood (0) and bowling hero Gareth Batty (5)

All in all the reserve players all got a good run out in this game, and Batty certainly upped the pressure on the ineffective left armer Giles with his display today.

Carib Beer XI 129 (Hoggard 4-27)
England 347 (Thorpe 88, Jones 66, Trescothick 50, Lawson 4-94)
Carib Beer XI 229 (Joseph 50, Batty 5-53)
England 13-2.

Posted by Marc