http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 - First Test – Day 4 Recap
At stumps on day four of the first Test between England and West Indies, at Lord's, the home team needed another 181 runs to win the match with eight wickets in hand.
The visitors started the fourth day with 120 runs on the board for the loss of four and were looking down the barrel. However, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Marlon-Nathaniel-Samuels-c74804 took the responsibility on their shoulders and constructed a brilliant partnership, which gave a new life to West Indies’ hopes of beating England. The two seasoned campaigners scored 157 runs for the fifth-wicket partnership.
The lower-order batsmen also showed some resistance and helped their team post 345 in the second innings and gave a target of 191 runs to the home team.
Chanderpaul remained the top-scorer for West Indies with 91 runs, which came off 250 balls with the help of 10 boundaries. The veteran left-hander was trapped in front of the wickets by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/GP-Swann-c1501.
Samuels also showed good form and struck 86 runs off 172 balls, which included a dozen fours. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DJG-Sammy-c1382 contributed to their team’s cause with little cameos of 43 and 37 respectively.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SCJ-Broad-c2465, who took seven wickets in the first innings, remained the pick of the bowlers for England once again and grabbed four scalps after giving away 93 runs in his 34 overs, while Swann also shined with three for 59.
Chasing a competitive total, England wobbled in its second innings and scored 10 runs for the loss of two wickets. The skipper and centurion of the first innings, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AJ-Strauss-c964 was dismissed cheaply, which should be a massive morale booster for the visitors.
Although, England has a very strong batting line-up but such a total is often tricky on a fifth day wicket. It is surely not going to be an easy ride for England but Swann, England’s premier spinner is hopeful that his team will chase down the score without much trouble. The off-spinner believes that the pitch is not offering much assistance to the bowlers, especially when the ball gets old.
"We know the wicket is very good for batting. That tends to happen at Lord's. Hopefully the ball won't talk much like it didn't for us today. Once it gets to 30-35 overs old it seems to go a bit out of shape and not be very responsive. We beat the outside edge a lot but couldn't pick up the edges we did in the first innings. That was frustrating to say the least but I thought we stuck at our guns very well and to get a chase of less than 200 we're happy with," Swann expressed.
The last day of the match is expected to be an intriguing one and let us hope that we witness cricket of the highest quality.
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