Cricket shines at The Oval

There was no fear of being 'Blinded By The Light' at the Oval today, in spite of Manfred Mann blaring it out, as it remained grey and dismal almost throughout the day.

England did promise to brighten things up at the start of their innings when, after losing stand-in captain Alec Stewart for twelve, Marcus Trescothick, making a most impressive international debut and the enigmatic Graeme Hick raced to a century partnership in, near enough, as many balls.

For Stewart the dismissal was, in a personal sort of way, an anti-climax. He was making a record 126th. limited-overs appearance for his country, going past the great opening batsman - and his sometime-opening partner - Graham Gooch. The scene was set perfectly for him, on his home ground, for a big innings to match the occasion, but as it happened, he could not get his legs out of the way of a straight ball from Neil Johnson.

Circumstances have turned the clock back a little for the acting captain. Not so long ago he was captain, wicket-keeper and opening batsman for England and then found his services were not considered adequate for the one-day game.

Now, in the absence of Nasser Hussain he is back playing the triple role and at 37 his enthusiasm for the game shows no sign of waning.

Zimbabwe, in their performance today, could hardly be faltered. Having lost both the Tests of their short series, they have come back as strongly as could be expected. That they have the ability was never in doubt. They did, in fact, show it in the rain-marred second Test at Trent Bridge.

Today they simply reiterated the fact that they do not lag behind England in the one-day game. They lead them by seven games to six in the overall limited-over matches after the victory today.

An excellent innings of eighty from Alaister Campbell, who was superbly assisted by the Flower brothers, Andy in particular, did the job for Zimbabwe today.

The fourth wicket stand between Campbell and his captain yielded 123 runs from 176 balls and had first, brought about a recovery from 35 for 3 and then put the side in a position of strength.

After Campbell's dismissal Andy and Grant Flower added 48 before the captain went with 61 to his name leaving the younger sibling unbeaten on 33 as the side went merrily past the England total.

Earlier, England's batting, as so often in the past, was disappointing after such a solid foundation laid by Trescothick and Hick. The latter gave glimpses of his brilliance in compiling his half-century from only 57 balls before mistiming a shot in the covers.

Trescothick followed Hick as so often happens after a big stand but he had done enough in his innings of 79 to convince the selectors of his future role in the England order.

England then proceeded to lose nine wickets for 71 in 22 overs and suddenly Zimbabwe were presented with a target which looked far less daunting than what they would have feared a little earlier.

The three stoppages for rain, gave the opportunity to see what NatWest, the sponsors of the series thought of the innovations in the one-day game for the first time in England.

Jolyon Armstrong, NatWest Cricket Representative said: " From what we saw at the first day-nighter at Bristol, we could tell that the crowd felt that they were at something different. There was a buzz about the crowd, the atmosphere was very much increased and it turned out to be a super game. Everybody I talked to loved the innovations, the black stumps, the NatWest village with the world record speedball you could face if you felt brave enough to stand behind it, the music and the lights."

Armstrong went on to say: " The whole object of the exercise, along with the ECB is to attract a new audience and certainly, speaking to the people at Gloucestershire, I was told there was a whole section of crowd who came in, who had never been to cricket before and they left having fully enjoyed the day. So I think as a start it was most promising and it gives us at NatWest a lot of encouragement."

With Zimbabwe having won both their matches, it makes it vital for England and West Indies to get among the points from their match at Lord's tomorrow to keep up with the pace.