England cruise to easy victory
2nd Test, England vs West Indies, Headingley
England sealed a convincing victory in the 2nd test, by an innings an 280 odd runs. Batting first, England notched up 570-7 dec in a day and a half, with Micheal Vaughan (103) and Kevin Pietersen (226) the stars of the show. In response, West Indies were bowled out for 146 and 141, slumping to their heaviest ever test defeat. That England were the better side is not up for question, but it was largely due to the ineptitude of the West Indians rather than a particularly strong English side. England did play good cricket and certainly Vaughan’s century on return to the test arena is good news and equally, Kevin Pietersen played his most mature innings to date, which rewarded him with his highest test score and the man-of-the-match award to boot. Arguably that accolade should have gone to Ryan Sidebottom, whose 8 wickets on return to the test fold, some 6 years after he made his one-match debut, won the match for England. England’s mainstream bowlers looked average at best, with Harmison and Plunkett both good at times, but on the whole inconsistent. Monty didn’t get much of a chance to bowl, on a Headingley pitch not expected to spin. With Flintoff likely to be out of the third test, Sidebottom can expect to keep his place on the back of a fabulous performance.
The West Indies, however, were both uninspiring and unlucky. Shivnarine Chanderpaul was ruled out through injury before the match got underway and captain Ramnaresh Sarwan was out during a freak fielding injury which saw him stretchered off with a badly damaged shoulder, which looks set to rule him out of any further participation in this series. These absences left a massively inexperienced side whose bowling was insipid and batting was irresponsible. Only Dwayne Bravo looked like a man capable of performing at the highest level and the side is certainly a stark contrast to the West Indies’ glory days of recent years. To say they are missing Brian Lara would be an understatement - they are, in fact, missing any semblance of a test side.
Test 3 promises to be more of the same and England should be able to do enough to ensure a series victory.
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1 opinion for England cruise to easy victory
The Village Cricketer
May 29, 2007 at 3:44 pm
England played well, the West Indies didn’t. From the looks of things at Headingly, the Windies are the poorest side to tour England since Bangladesh in 2005.
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