England continued their undefeated run at Chennai, by beating the Caribbean’s in a close encounter. And with this win they are very much into the World Cup, despite the fact that there berth in Quarter Finals depends on the outcome of remaining matches. The result of this match has surely opened up the Group Table for the remaining teams.
Thursday’s encounter seemed to be pretty ordinary till England were batting. Their batsmen didn’t offer any kind of skill to craft big innings. They were batting getting into 20’s and 30’s and getting out. Trott showed some grit and played some good shots around the wicket. He was looking pretty good and well set at the crease for another half century under his belt, before West Indian off Spinner Bishoo got the better of Trott. Luke Wright also meant business before Bishoo got his 3rd scalp. Bishoo was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3 for 34.One thing to note was that spinner was doing the major damage in England’s innings. This point was understood very well by English Spinners too. In the bowling department Russell impressed with taking 4 wickets.
West Indies got off to a flying start. Chris Gayle hammered the ball to every part of the ground. His innings included one towering six and eight boundaries. Darren Sammy came to the party with a quick fire 41 including three sixes and two boundaries. Till the time they were batting it seemed West Indies will sail through very comfortably. Later, came the heroics of Tredwell and experience of Swann. They bowled at right areas giving no room for the batsman and deceiving them in the flight of the delivery. From 58/1 they were struggling at 118/5, they seemed to have lost the way to the target. Pollard and Sarwan tried to build the innings and continue the chase but Pollard was trapped leg before by Swann at a very critical stage of the chase. Russell came and hit some lusty shots to give West Indies hope for a berth in the quarter final. With the depart of Russell the chance of West Indies win got bleak. The wicket of Sarwan gave England the glimpse of victory and their cancellation of return tickets to the country. This win has surely boosted the confidence of Englishmen and despite being low down in the group, they surely are in the hunt for a spot in the quarter.
