England v West Indies, NatWest Series, Trent Bridge

West Indies race to seven-wicket win

The Wisden Bulletin by Liam Brickhill

June 27, 2004

32.2 overs West Indies 148 for 3 (Gayle 60*, Lara 32*) beat England 147 (Strauss 43, Bravo 3-26) by seven wickets
Scorecard

Dwayne Bravo - three wickets in his last five overs © Getty Images

An unbeaten half-century from Chris Gayle anchored West Indies to a comfortable seven-wicket win over England at Trent Bridge, after an impressive bowling display, led by Dwayne Bravo, had left West Indies needing only 148 to win.

It wasn't all plain sailing for West Indies, however, and in their 62-run opening partnership, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Gayle had to battle through an aggressive opening spell from Steve Harmison, who was fired up and bowling at over 90mph.

At the other end, Darren Gough could not match Harmison's pace, but found plenty of movement with the new ball. He induced an edge from Chanderpaul, but Andrew Strauss couldn't hold on as he dived to his left at fourth slip, and in the 11th over Marcus Trescothick was the culprit as another catch went down. He missed a slash from Gayle off Gough that went fairly high and fast, but should have been caught.

England finally found the breakthrough they had been searching for, as the innocuous medium-pace of Anthony McGrath proved to be the undoing of Chanderpaul. He edged a wide ball back onto his stumps, and West Indies were 62 for 1. Dwayne Smith and Ramnaresh Sarwan came and went fairly quickly, with both falling to James Anderson who followed in the footsteps of Harmison and Gough and extracted some movement and awkward bounce from the Trent Bridge pitch.

However, Sarwan's wicket brought Brian Lara to the crease, and as soon as he had stamped his authority, Michael Vaughan had no choice but to go for broke. Back came Harmison and Gough, but Gayle and Lara continued to dominate, and added 55 runs in just 7.3 overs to secure the victory. Harmison was the pick of the bowlers, finishing with figures of 10 overs for 28 runs, with two maidens, and was very unlucky not to have picked up a wicket after two impressive spells.

Earlier, West Indies' medium-pacers, Ian Bradshaw and the two Dwaynes - Bravo and Smith - took six wickets between them for only 68 runs in 23.2 overs, as England were skittled out for their lowest total at Trent Bridge.

Bradshaw did the damage up front as England's innings got off to a disastrous start. He dismissed Trescothick and Vaughan in consecutive overs to reduce England to 2 for 2. West Indies seemed to relax after the early breakthrough, and Strauss and Geraint Jones added a composed 82 for the third wicket, but once Jones had fallen for 35, England's lack of experience became all too apparent.

Geraint Jones - a composed 35 on debut, but his dismissal sparked the collapse © Getty Images

After Ravi Rampaul bowled Jones (84 for 3), the wheels came off England's innings. Paul Collingwood didn't last long, getting a faint edge through to Ridley Jacobs off the fired-up Rampaul (102 for 4), and things went from bad to worse as Strauss, who had batted steadily for 43, edged an excellent delivery from Bravo to Jacobs to leave England teetering on 104 for 5.

Ian Blackwell got off the mark in style, clipping Rampaul for four through fine leg, but in the next over pulled Bravo straight to Chanderpaul at midwicket and England were 115 for 6. Bravo was soon in action again, as Gayle took a tumbling catch at first slip to end McGrath's long-awaited return to the team, after carrying the drinks in three consecutive series (118 for 7). West Indies had run through England's middle order, taking five wickets for 34 runs, and Lara immediately went for the kill, bringing in two more slips.

Rikki Clarke and Gough then battled gamely for 10 overs to try and keep England's hopes alive, but neither looked comfortable, and Gough in particular struggled to lay bat on ball. He did finally get hold of one, pulling Jermaine Lawson well through square leg, but Lawson soon had his revenge, bowling Gough with a snorter of a delivery that jagged in off the pitch (139 for 8).

Harmison survived just four balls, before he too was bowled by a ball that moved in a touch and knocked back the off stump (145 for 9). Lawson took full advantage of the inroads made by Bravo, Rampaul and Bradshaw, to finish with 2 for 36 from his nine overs.

Smith was rewarded for bowling full and straight, as Clarke moved across his stumps and was trapped lbw to close England's innings on 147. For his efforts with the ball Bravo was rightfully named Man of the Match.

© Cricinfo

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Matches

New Zealand v West Indies at Birmingham

Players/Umpires

Dwayne Bravo

Chris Gayle

Steve Harmison

Brian Lara

Series/Tournaments

West Indies tour of England

NatWest Series

Teams

England

New Zealand