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England on Top

Tuesday, March 23 2004

A stoic 90 from Graham Thorpe & an explosive spell of fast bowling from Welsh speedster Simon Jones has put England on the brink of victory against the West Indies at Trinidad.

Heading into day 4 in a dominant position at 6/300, England promptly lost their last 4 wickets for just 19 runs, including Thorpe for a brazen 90 (9 fours, 1 six).
Pedro Collins finished with 4-71 & Tino Best with 3-71.

Trailing by 111 on first innings, the West Indies needed a big start, and the Chris Gayle, Devon Smith combo once more promised to deliver only to fall on their swords, Jones clean bowling Gayle & bagging Smith two overs later to give England all the initiative.
Jones soon struck again, having the out-of-sorts Ramnaresh Sarwan leg before for a streaky 13, sparking an over the top send off which had umpire Billy Bowden cautioning the excitable Jones.

Ridley Jacobs & Shivnarine Chanderpaul provided some much needed spine to the West Indies batting, grafting a 102 run stand, their teammates would do well to pay attention to the high price Chanderpaul in particular put on his wicket, the diminutive left hander batting over 3 hours for his 42.

Jacobs eventually fell for 70 (11 fours) leaving the game in the balance at 4/158.
However that man Steve Harmison soon returned to dismiss ‘the prince of Trinidad’, trapping Brian Lara leg before for just 8 & all but ending any hopes of a West Indian victory.
Dwayne Smith & Chanderpaul both fell victim to Andy Flintoff’s nagging length shortly after to leave the hosts reeling at 7-195, the tail was unable to was, adding only 14 runs to that tally as Jones returned to take his maiden test five fer.

The Windies all out for 209 & Jones taking 5 for 57 from his 15 overs.

England were set a modest target of 99 to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series, and they made their intentions clear from the outset, Marcus Trescothick slamming a boundary only to fall victim to the third ball of the innings.

Michael Vaughan & Mark Butcher then entertained the possibility of wiping off the deficit on day 4, taking to the hapless Caribbean seamers with disdain, Vaughan flicking Tino Best over square leg for six while Butcher blasted the same bowler through point.

Brian Lara managed to peg back the run rate for a short time by introducing Adam Sandford, who promptly had Vaughan trapped on the crease & out leg before for 27(23 balls).

However with England needing just 28 runs to retain the Wisden trophy, the umpire offered light to the feilding side who gladly accepted, the batsman having unsurprisingly rejected a similar offer.

Posted by DavidH