Replay crazy, and hit below the belt
Andrew McGlashan presents the plays of the day
Andrew McGlashan in Jamaica
05-Feb-2009
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That's how to play it
Andrew Flintoff failed to add to his overnight score when he couldn't get over the top of a cut shot and offered a simple catch to backward point. Three balls later, Matt Prior showed how the shot should be played - albeit to a slightly wider ball - as he connected with a rasping cut that raced to the boundary. It highlighted the narrow margins there are for batsmen between success or failure, but Flintoff probably hadn't finished slamming the dressing-room furniture to be able to watch Prior's effort.
Andrew Flintoff failed to add to his overnight score when he couldn't get over the top of a cut shot and offered a simple catch to backward point. Three balls later, Matt Prior showed how the shot should be played - albeit to a slightly wider ball - as he connected with a rasping cut that raced to the boundary. It highlighted the narrow margins there are for batsmen between success or failure, but Flintoff probably hadn't finished slamming the dressing-room furniture to be able to watch Prior's effort.
Shiv's eye-patches no help
Shivnarine Chanderpaul has become an unexpected style icon for the black patches he wears under both eyes. "One day in Miami I was struggling to open my eyes and Faoud Bacchus [the former West Indies batsman] came and stuck two under my eyes," he told the series programme. "It actually worked then so I kept it." Well, they didn't help him much when he failed to steady himself under a steepling top-edge offered by Ryan Sidebottom. As the ball fell agonisingly out of his reach, Chanderpaul signalled as though he'd lost it in the sun.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul has become an unexpected style icon for the black patches he wears under both eyes. "One day in Miami I was struggling to open my eyes and Faoud Bacchus [the former West Indies batsman] came and stuck two under my eyes," he told the series programme. "It actually worked then so I kept it." Well, they didn't help him much when he failed to steady himself under a steepling top-edge offered by Ryan Sidebottom. As the ball fell agonisingly out of his reach, Chanderpaul signalled as though he'd lost it in the sun.
Rudi's right again
After Paul Collingwood was the first England batsman to be on the receiving end of a referral yesterday, Steve Harmison today became the first to ask for a decision to be checked. After Jerome Taylor struck him with a full, inswinging delivery, he immediately asked for the second opinion. It wasn't the plumbest of lbws you will ever see, but there wasn't enough doubt to allow Daryl Harper to reverse his decision. When Hawk-eye was eventually used the ball was shown to be clipping leg stump and Rudi Koertzen had been proved right for a second time.
After Paul Collingwood was the first England batsman to be on the receiving end of a referral yesterday, Steve Harmison today became the first to ask for a decision to be checked. After Jerome Taylor struck him with a full, inswinging delivery, he immediately asked for the second opinion. It wasn't the plumbest of lbws you will ever see, but there wasn't enough doubt to allow Daryl Harper to reverse his decision. When Hawk-eye was eventually used the ball was shown to be clipping leg stump and Rudi Koertzen had been proved right for a second time.
Tone setting
Andrew Flintoff has been involved in some barnstorming overs in Tests - Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis were two memorable victims - and his first to Chris Gayle was right up there. His second ball was planted straight back over mid-on for six and all Flintoff could do was shrug his shoulders. However, he soon responded with a searing bouncer that whistled past Gayle's nose. It is easy to drift off occasionally in the Caribbean sun, but that over woke everyone up.
Andrew Flintoff has been involved in some barnstorming overs in Tests - Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis were two memorable victims - and his first to Chris Gayle was right up there. His second ball was planted straight back over mid-on for six and all Flintoff could do was shrug his shoulders. However, he soon responded with a searing bouncer that whistled past Gayle's nose. It is easy to drift off occasionally in the Caribbean sun, but that over woke everyone up.
Replay crazy
After one referral in 121 overs, five were then called for in the next 12 split across the end of England's innings and start of West Indies'. The most hopelessly optimistic came when Andrew Strauss lost the plot early in Ramnaresh Sarwan's innings, to a delivery that would have missed a second set of stumps. But Sarwan was soon the beneficiary after he'd been given out lbw to Harmison by Tony Hill. The third umpire said there was an issue with height and Hill reversed his decision. One of the main talking points through all of this was the time it took to make the decision with some waits approaching three or four minutes. This is the trial phase, but the delay will be something ICC will need to look at.
Bell gets clanged
One man probably wishing Sarwan had been given out was Ian Bell. A couple of balls after the lbw was overturned, Sarwan clipped the ball strongly off his pads. It went straight at Bell - although even his harshest critics, of which there are plenty, would be hard pressed to call it a chance. What really hurt, though, was where it hit him. On first look it appeared to strike his knee, but in fact it crunched him a touch higher up where everyone, except the person hit, finds it very funny.
One man probably wishing Sarwan had been given out was Ian Bell. A couple of balls after the lbw was overturned, Sarwan clipped the ball strongly off his pads. It went straight at Bell - although even his harshest critics, of which there are plenty, would be hard pressed to call it a chance. What really hurt, though, was where it hit him. On first look it appeared to strike his knee, but in fact it crunched him a touch higher up where everyone, except the person hit, finds it very funny.
Andrew McGlashan is a staff writer at Cricinfo