England v West Indies - West Indies tour of England - 1st Test - Day 5 – Recap
West Indies 243 & 345 v England 398 & 193/5 (46.1 ov) - England won by 5 wickets
England drew first blood in the ongoing three-match Test series against West Indies as they clobbering a win by five wickets against the tourists on Monday, May 21, 2012, at Lord's, London.
England the reigning number-one team in Test cricket, needed this win after having an unimpressive winter against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 and Sri Lankan, which cast doubts on their stature in the longest format of the game.
However, with this win, which saw a stupendous 122-run knock by skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AJ-Strauss-c964 - ending a hiatus of 18 months - England have shunned their critics.
After limiting West Indies on a total of 345 runs in the second innings, England required 191 runs to win the match, and out of these runs, the Poms made ten runs on the fourth day for the loss of two wickets, with skipper Strauss failing to repeat a match winning performance, as he fell after scoring only a run.
The final day began with the game in limbo as both sides had an equal chance to go one up.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 looked eager to make early inroads to put the hosts under pressure right from the word go.
West Indies pacer, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KAJ-Roach-c1758, who had taken two wickets a day earlier, did not wait for long to open his account on the final day as he nabbed the first wicket of the day by dismissing Trott with only 29 runs on the board. The batsman found his way back to the pavilion after scoring an innings of 13 runs off 21 deliveries.
The demise of Trott almost created panic in the English camp as they saw the Windies taking the lead as they needed to hold off the tourists from grabbing a couple of more wickets.
It was then time for all-rounder, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KP-Pietersen-c1806, to take the field and his very presence changed the whole atmosphere of the game as England began scoring a bit faster without wasting any time.
And although Pietersen played a small innings of 13 runs, England had amassed 57 runs by the time the batsman lost his wicket.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/IR-Bell-c1597 was then the next to come out to test his mettle against the Windies, who were still not out of the game and needed just two more wickets to open the door of a possible victory as England’s lower-order might not have been strong enough to succeed against the touring team.
Nonetheless, England’s tail was never put to test as Cook and Bell made sure they stuck around to take their side closer to victory.
Finally after tailoring an innings of 79 runs, Cook was caught by KA Edwards off the bowling of Sammy with his side on a tally of 189.
Bell then remained unbeaten on 63 runs as England won the game, with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SCJ-Broad-c2465, who grabbed 11 wickets in the game being named as the Player of the Match.
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