England return to winning ways against Windies

by Julian Guyer

Friday, July 2, 2004

LEEDS, England (AFP): England won their first match of the NatWest Series when they defeated West Indies by seven wickets in their day/night one-day international at Headingley here Thursday.

England, chasing just 160 for victory, won with 28 overs to spare.

Andrew Strauss was 44 not out and the recalled Andrew Flintoff 21 not out after opener Marcus Trescothick had made 55.

Pace bowlers Stephen Harmison and James Anderson took three wickets apiece as England bowled out the West Indies for 159.

Man-of-the-match Harmison, for the second time in successive matches, took career-best one-day figures, finishing with three for 31 while Anderson claimed three for 37.

West Indies were all out with 59 balls of their innings left after losing the toss. They collapsed to 72 for six before a stand of 63 between Ramnaresh Sarwan (46) and Ricardo Powell (36) got them to three figures.

"It was a good performance," England captain Michael Vaughan told reporters after a bonus point victory on his Yorkshire home ground. "Our bowling was outstanding and our fielding matched the bowling as well."

Turning to Harmison, Vaughan added: "He's outstanding, there's no other word to describe him. He's undoubtedly a world-class performer in both forms of cricket."

But with England still needing at least one more victory from their two remaining games Vaughan said 25-year-old Harmison, who was recorded bowling at over 94mph at Headingley, would not be rested just yet.

"He's our number one bowler. We are playing a good Kiwi side on Sunday and he's done very well against them so there's no question of him resting for the next couple."

England gambled on just three front-line bowlers - Darren Gough, Harmison and Anderson after recalling specialist batsman Robert Key and playing all-rounder Flintoff, who had been ruled out from the whole series with an ankle injury, as a batsman only.

"He (Flintoff) rang me up (Wednesday) and said he was fit. Whether it is as a batter or an all-rounder he's worth having in the side, his batting has been that good in the last 12 months," insisted Vaughan.

"Today we risked that extra batter. We were fortunate today because we got away with it but you can't get away with it every time."

West Indies captain Brian Lara, after seeing his side beaten in the tournament for the first time, was upbeat: "We are still in a very decent position," explained Lara whose side is level on points in joint second-place with England with a match in hand.

"We've got a very important game on Saturday against New Zealand (in Cardiff). We are looking forward to going into that game very positively."

Defeat for the West Indies confirmed a trend that had seen the side batting first in the tournament lose in all the completed games.

"So far in the series if the team batting first doesn't put up a good performance it's a mismatch," Lara said.

"If that situation arises again we've got to be a bit more mature, show a bit more fight and technique and get things going and get the runs on the board for our bowlers."

England had a boost when Vaughan won the toss and elected to field.

Since Vaughan became captain last year England, in their 21 completed one-dayers, including this one, in which the skipper had played, they had won all the 11 where they had bowled first and lost the eight batting first.

The pattern had been maintained during seven-wicket defeats by New Zealand and West Indies earlier in the series where England were bowled out for just 147 and 101 respectively.

Durham quick Harmison sent England on their way when he had Shivnarine Chanderpaul (three) caught behind in the second over.

England then took two wickets in two balls with opener Chris Gayle run out for a brisk 23 by Vaughan's direct hit from extra cover.

Anderson captured the prize scalp of Lara for just six when the left-hander dragged a full-length ball on to his stumps before Sarwan fell to a brilliant one-handed catch above his head by a leaping Paul Collingwood at backward point off medium-pacer Trescothick.

Final scoreboard:

West Indies
C. Gayle run out 23
S. Chanderpaul c Jones b Harmison 3
D. Smith c Jones b Harmison 2
R. Sarwan c Collingwood b Trescothick 46
B. Lara b Anderson 6
D. Bravo c Jones b Anderson 5
R. Jacobs b Anderson 2
R. Powell b Harmison 36
I. Bradshaw c Jones b McGrath 12
R. Rampaul c Gough b Anderson 10
J. Lawson not out 0
Extras (lb4, w9, nb1) 14
Total (10 wkts, 40.1 overs) 159

Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-29, 3-29, 4-40, 5-62, 6-72, 7-135, 8-137, 9-159, 10-159
Bowling: Gough 8.1-1-23-1; Harmison 10-2-31-3 (1nb, 2w); Anderson 8-1-37-3; McGrath 10-1-36-1 (2w); Trescothick 4-0-28-1 (1w)

England
M. Trescothick run out 55
M. Vaughan c Gayle b Bravo 14
R. Key b Bravo 6
A. Strauss not out 44
A. Flintoff not out 21
Extras (lb8, w4, nb8) 20
Total (3 wkts, 22 overs) 160

Fall of wickets: 1-55, 2-64, 3-120
Did not bat: P Collingwood, G Jones, A McGrath, D Gough, S Harmison, J Anderson
Bowling: Bradshaw 6-0-29-0 (1w); Lawson 7-0-50-0 (4nb, 1w); Bravo 4-0-29-2 (2w); Rampaul 3-0-28-0 (4nb); Smith 2-0-16-0
Toss: England

Umpires: Daryl Harper (AUS), Mark Benson (ENG)
TV umpire: Jeremy Lloyds (ENG)
Match referee: Gundappa Viswanath (IND)
Result: England won by 7 wkts

Table in the NatWest Series triangular cricket tournament (played, won, lost, tied, no result, points, run-rate):

New Zealand 3 1 0 0 2 12 3.92
West Indies 3 1 1 0 1 9 -0.54
England 4 1 2 0 1 9 -0.77

Remaining fixtures
July 03: New Zealand v West Indies, Cardiff
July 04: England v New Zealand, Bristol
July 06: England v West Indies, Lord's
July 08: New Zealand v West Indies, Southampton
July 10: Final, Lord's

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