After all the talk before the match about Vaughan and Flintoff, at the end of the day all the talk was of the on the field performance of the West Indies. The Windies, with the injection of pace from Fidel Edwards produced some fire reminiscent of the great pacemen of the past. They had one of their better days in the series so far and it was good to see them compete.
England won the toss and decided to bat and did well in the first session. There was some discussion on whether they should have bowled with the conditions favouring their bowlers, but it seems most teams want to get a score on the board first. The afternoon session belonged to the Windies, with the accuracy of the bowlers drying out the runs and producing some rash shots from the players trying to get out of the stranglehold.
England made a recovery in the last session with a partnership between Prior and Bell taking them nearer to the 300 mark. Bell produced a crucial innings which started slowly due to the glut of wickets and the rebuilding that was required but produced some classy shots with sweet timing and placement. Prior continued his fine form and was to blame for his wicket as he tried to step up the momentum.
It sets up an interesting second day, with the Windies aiming to get England out without the addition of too many runs. They are amongst the tail with only Bell left. At the time of writing, England have progressed well in the first 30 minutes,scoring well with Harmison keeping Bell company and playing his usual lofty shots. All eyes will be on Harmison the bowler later on the day. He has already received some body blows and it will be interesting to see if he can return the favour and produce the kind of form that demolished Pakistan at this ground last year. The pitch favours the taller bowlers that England possess, as they can extract extra pace and bounce and it remains to be seen if they can make good use of the conditions.
It is all set up to be an interesting day as both teams are in the contest and have plenty to play for.
1 comment:
Hey i am not a pommie basher, just that I dint like Andrew Miller s writeup and he sounded pretty much like Raj days.
Amyways a gripping contest ahead..WI 3 down for 118 and good addition by England tail. So pressure again on WI with last pair of pro batsmen on crease.
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