England v http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760: A day for the English off-spinners
England have beaten the West Indies by a narrow margin of 18 runs in one of the most crucial group B matches of the ICC Cricket World Cup, 2011 at Chennai. With the victory, the English dreams of lifting the most prestigious trophy of the cricketing world are still alive. However, they would have to wait for a couple of more results of this group to find out whether they have qualified for the quarter-finals.
West Indies on the other hand, would be very disappointed with their performance as they had a golden opportunity to dismantle the English side.
The English batting was quite mediocre today as majority of the batsmen took good starts, but failed to convert them into a big knock which was required in order to post a huge score on the board.
England made some changes to their previous lineup as Chris Tremlett, James Tredwell and Luke Wright were brought in the playing eleven. Tredwell and Wright showed no signs of rustiness and played a vital role in the English victory.
Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss had to take a very difficult decision of dropping their premier bowler James Anderson, but that was inevitable considering his disappointing performances in the showpiece event so far.
Although, the track was offering a lot of assistance to the English spinners but no one can take the credit away from the off-spinners Tredwell and Graeme Swann as they took seven wickets between them and ran through the West Indian batting lineup.
England has had a bizarre World Cup so far as they have played their best cricket against the stronger oppositions, whereas they have been below average against the minnows.
Strauss was naturally very excited after the match but expressed his disappointment on the batting performance of his team and praised the effort of his bowlers. He said during the presentation ceremony that, "it's been pretty hard work all the way through the group stages. We should have got 260-270 but we fought brilliantly with the ball."
West Indies on the other hand, lost an opportunity to secure the quarter-final berth as they had the English team on mat many times in the match but they allowed Strauss and company off the hook.
The positive thing for West Indies was the performance of Andre http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Russell-c87177 as he grabbed four wickets and scored crucial 49 runs. He showed today that he has the mettle to become a world-class performer and can be a genuine all-rounder for the Caribbean team.
Chris Gayle looked threatening at the start of the innings and played some extra-ordinary shots before he was trapped leg before the wickets by the wily Swann. Just like the English batting performance, many West Indian batsmen were also off to promising starts but they failed to help their team cross the line.
West Indian captain Darren Sammy pointed out this weakness at the post match presentation ceremony and also praised the efforts of the young leg-spinner who was making his international debut.
"One of the guys who made a start needed to take us through. We have a few positives to take, Bishoo bowled well, but at the end of the day we lost. I was happy chasing 244 after the start they had," Sammy said.
After this result, the situation of group B has become very interesting and no team other than http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 is assured of a quarter-final spot.
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