England vs West Indies – Strauss answers critics with second century - 2nd Test Recap
After three closely fought days, England defeated West Indies by a handsome margin of nine wickets on the fourth day of the second Test at Nottingham. With this triumph, the home team sealed the series with a 2-0 lead.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Marlon-Nathaniel-Samuels-c74804 and the captain constructed a brilliant partnership and
completed their centuries.
The duo took the tourists out of trouble but a first innings total of 370 runs was not enough in such beautiful batting conditions.
In their first innings, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AJ-Strauss-c964 led England from the front once again, and scored a marvellous hundred to make sure that his team gained a significant lead of 58 runs in the first innings. The English skipper scored 141 runs with the help of 22 boundaries,
and was ably supported by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KP-Pietersen-c1806, who blasted 80 runs at a strike-rate of more than 70 runs per 100 balls.
The visitors had shown a good fight till then, before their batting crumbled under pressure in the second innings as they lost their top six wickets for merely 61 runs on the board. However, Samuels came to the rescue of his team once again and helped West
Indies give a target of 108 runs for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 to win the series.
Strauss and company achieved the target for the loss of just one wicket and proved once again that they are the number one ranked Test team of the world.
For taking eight wickets in the match, England’s fast bowler, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/TT-Bresnan-c2711 was named as the Player of the Match.
The http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 captain is disappointed with his team’s batting performance and hopes that they will improve in the remainder of the series. However, he was all praise for Samuels, who has been in tremendous form in the tour.
Sammy said, "We're not learning and something has to be done. I think we have to be more focused, keep working hard and put a higher price on our wickets. Marlon has through a lot and gained a lot of experience over the years, coming from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750, a different
format, his form has been excellent and I hope it continues."
Strauss on the other hand, was jubilant with the series victory but appreciated the kind of spirit Caribbean boys are showing in the series.
"We're obviously delighted to get over the line in this match, it was hard work at times. We got ourselves in positions were we thought we could take the game by the scruff of the neck but West Indies fought back," said Strauss.
The last Test of the series will start from June 7, 2012 at Birmingham.
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