LIVE – http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 – Match Update
While many had predicted a strong show by the hosts England against tourists West Indies in the first Twenty20 match at Kennington Oval, London, it was the unexpected performance by Ravi Bopara that really took everyone by surprise as the genuine batsman
who everyone expects to do wonders with the bat was inclined to do the damage with the ball in his hand.
Before Bopara’s arrival, the Windies after having put into bat by the English were batting quite impressively as they had scored a ton for the loss of only three wickets and were going strong, however, the 16th over proved lethal as Bopara was
called in by skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SCJ-Broad-c2465 who has been ruled out of the series because of a shoulder injury.
Critics might have had a field day had this decision backfired, but the gamble worked and on the second delivery of the over Bopara shattered the stumps of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Nkruma-Eljego-Bonner-c79781, who after posting three runs off five deliveries found his way back to the pavilion.
On the next delivery, he struck again by bowling a quickie to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/C-Kieswetter-c1206.
After five wickets down with only 104 runs on the board, the West Indian batting was in ruins as the plan to post a humongous total on the board seemed a difficult probability now.
In his next over he proved lethal once more when http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Danza-Pacino-Hyatt-c52396 had his stumps shattered by Bopara. The batsman walked off the field after scoring
28 runs off 26 deliveries. At the time of his departure the West Indians had manage to post 112 runs on the board for the loss of seven wickets with two more overs remaining in the innings.
With Bopara going so well, Swann decided to give him the final over of the first innings and yet again the bowler grabbed his last wicket of the day when http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DJG-Sammy-c1382 was caught by Bairstow near the boundary after the batsman had scored five runs.
Bopara bowled 3.4 overs and conceded 10 runs in his perhaps first ever impressive show with the ball at international level.
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