Windies floored by five-star Freddie

Friday, April 2, 2004

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, April 1 (AFP) - Andrew Flintoff captured his first five-wicket haul in Tests to bowl England into a superior position on the opening day of the third Test against the West Indies on Thursday.

Ramnaresh Sarwan hit the top score of 63 and Shivnarine Chanderpaul made 50, but Flintoff took five wickets for 58 runs from 16.2 overs, as West Indies were dismissed for 224 in their first innings.

England reached 20 for one when stumps were drawn with Marcus Trescothick again failing with bat, being bowled for two off the inside edge for the third time in the series.

Victory here will give England their first series triumph in the Caribbean for 36 years.

Sarwan and Chanderpaul added 79 for the fourth wicket either side of tea to steady the innings, but West Indies lost their last seven wickets for 57 runs in a little under 18 overs.

Flintoff, bowling aggressively on a hard, true, bouncy Kensington Oval pitch, had the big wicket of West Indies captain Brian Lara just after the lunch interval and came back after the tea break to blow away the home team's lower order.

"It's been a long wait for my first five-wicket haul because we probably needed it after a bit of a partnership between Lara and Sarwan," Flintoff said.

"It was a very important milestone for me. Five wickets in any cricket match, let alone a Test match in Barbados with so many English people watching, it was a great feeling.

"I always try very hard when I bowl, although I have not always gotten the wickets. People have been telling me that it's been 30-odd Tests and I do not have a five-wicket haul. It's not for a lack of trying or practice."

Steve Harmison, England main wrecking ball in this series, supported Flintoff with three for 42 from 18 overs.

"After reaching tea with only three wickets down, our aim was not to lose more than four wickets in the day," said Lara.

"We lost seven wickets inside 20 overs and England were batting before the end of the day - that was something we did not envisage.

"If we can keep England's run rate down to a minimum on the second day, and pick up six or seven wickets, then that should put us in a good position going into the third day."

Gaining appreciable bounce and movement from the pitch, Matthew Hoggard and Harmison made life difficult for opening batsmen Chris Gayle and Daren Ganga and eventually removed them both in the first hour of the day.

Hoggard made the breakthrough when Gayle was adjudged lbw for six and Harmison had Ganga also lbw for 11 to leave West Indies 20 for two.

Lara promoted himself in the order to No.3 and played more circumspectly than in the two previous Tests.

He showed no ill effects from the damaged little finger he suffered in the first Test and found Sarwan a cool-headed ally.

They battled through the second hour of the morning to ease the pressure of the two early wickets and took West Indies to 71 for two at lunch.

After the interval, West Indies suffered a major setback when Lara was deceived by the lack of pace and bounce from a delivery from Flintoff and, driving loosely off the back foot, was caught at third slip for 36 to leave his side 88 for three.

Sarwan, batting with some enterprise, and Chanderpaul, typically diligent with his accumulation of runs, battled through a period testing bowling from the England pace attack to take West Indies to tea on 155 for three.

Once Harmison had Sarwan caught at second slip shortly after the break, West Indies surrendered meekly, with livewire fast bowler Tino Best's 17, the highest individual innings, from the bottom half of the batting.

West Indies made three changes to their line-up bringing in Ganga, Ryan Hinds and Edwards for the injured Devon Smith as well as the out-of-favour Dwayne Smith and Adam Sanford.

England are playing an unchanged side to the one that won the opening Test at Sabina Park in Jamaica and the second Test at Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad to take a 2-0 lead in the four-Test series.

Scoreboard at stumps on the opening day of the third Test:

West Indies 1st Innings
C. Gayle lbw b Hoggard 6
D. Ganga lbw b Harmison 11
B. Lara c Butcher b Flintoff 36
R. Sarwan c Flintoff b Harmison 63
S. Chanderpaul c Thorpe b Flintoff 50
R. Hinds c Jones b Harmison 5
R. Jacobs c sub (P. Collingwood) b Flintoff 6
T. Best c Butcher b Flintoff 17
P. Collins c Trescothick b Jones 7
C. Collymore not out 1
F. Edwards c Read b Flintoff 0
Extras (lb14, w1, nb7) 22
Total (all out, 75.2 overs) 224

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-20, 3-88, 4-167, 5-179, 6-197, 7-198, 8-208, 9-224, 10-224
Bowling: Hoggard 16-5-34-1, Harmison 18-6-42-3, Flintoff 16.2-2-58-5 (3nb), Jones 16-1-55-1 (1w), Giles 9-1-21-0

England 1st innings
M. Trescothick b Edwards 2
M. Vaughan not out 12
M. Butcher not out 3
Extras (nb 3) 3
Total (1 wicket, 12 overs) 20

Fall of wickets: 1-8
Bowling: Edwards 5-1-9-1 (2nb), Collins 5-3-10-0, Collymore 1-0-1-0 (1nb), Hinds 1-1-0-0
To Bat: N. Hussain, G. Thorpe, A. Flintoff, C. Read, A. Giles, M. Hoggard, S. Jones, S. Harmison.
Toss: England
Umpires: D. Hair, R. Koertzen
TV Replays: B. Doctrove, Reserve: V. Bullen
Match Referee: M. Procter

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