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.