West Indies qualify for the Super Eights

In Colombo today we caught a glimpse of the West Indies future - it was fast and hostile. Andy Richardson, Jermaine Lawson and Calisto Lopez blew away the English top order, eventually bowling out England for 98, ninety nine runs short of their target of 197. The exuberant West Indians, who are coached by the inspirational Gus Logie, have now qualified for the Super Eights. England must beat Zimabawe on Saturday.

The pace of the West Indians clearly rattled the English batsmen who played a succession of bad shots. The running between the wicket was also poor with three run outs from direct hits. Andy Richardson was particularly impressive in his new ball spell, that accounted for Michael Carberry(5). His rhythmical run-up and smooth action clearly mark him out as a bowler of huge potential. Carilitos Lopez was more erratic but also impressive. The outswinger that clipped the top of Ian Bells off stump was quite simply unplayable. Lawson too got into the action with a wicket on his first delivery. This followed a hat trick against Zimbabwe on Tuesday, in his last over of the tournament.

But it wasn't just the quicks that performed. Rodney Sooklal, their quickish off-spinner, returned the remarkable figures of 10-5-11-2. The leaden footed English batsmen weren't able to get to grips with his pace through the air or the sharp turn that he extracted.

The afternoon's proceedings marked a dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of the West Indians, whose own batsmen had struggled to come to terms with some fine English bowling in the morning.

West Indies, who won the toss and elected to bat despite the overcast conditions, were soon in trouble. Tim Murtagh's second ball of the day had Brenton Parchment caught behind, pushing a good outswinger. Sionarine Chattergoon was next to go, brilliantly caught by the diving Ian Bell at first slip.

A period of consolidation followed as the West Indians tried to see off the English opening bowlers, both of whom were moving the ball prodigiously. With hindsight, the decision to replace Murtagh in the eleventh over with the spin of Graham Bridge may have been a mistake. The conditions were tailor made for seam bowling. Nevertheless Bridge bowled well, varying his pace intelligently and extracting significant turn.

When Phillips had the talented Wilkinson stumped, with the score on 54, Hinds the West Indian skipper was brought to the crease. His innings of 69 turned around the game for the West Indians and was the cornerstone of their 196 all out. Indeed the 69 partnership with Deonarine briefly threatened to give them a score in excess of 200. However when Hinds was bowled by the part-time off spin of the England captain the West Indies collapsed. The final 5 wickets falling for 13 runs.