Caribbean Times 81st issue - Monday 4th April 2016

4 c a r i b b e a n t i m e s . a g
Monday 4th April 2016
cont’d from pg 3
West Indies bowlers affected
a middle-order collapse to restrict
England to a decent 155
for nine despite Joe Root’s
splendid half-century after
Sammy won the toss.
It was leg-spinner Samuel
Badree, who inflicted the
initial damage as he claimed
two for 16 in four overs with
the new ball while Dwayne
Bravo (3-37) and Carlos
Brathwaite (3-23) kept chipping
away at the wickets
while triggering a collapse
during the back-10. The last
five overs produced a meagre
40 runs.
Just when Root (54 in 36
balls) along with Jos Buttler
(36), looked set for an
imposing total, Bravo and
Brathwaite wreaked havoc.
England were cruising 84
for 3 in 11.1 overs with Root
and Buttler having added 61
runs already but were soon
reduced to 111 for 7, losing
four wickets for 27 runs within
next the three overs.
Before the collapse occured,
the boundaries were
flowing at that time when
Brathwaite dismissed Buttler.
The batsman tried to
pull the bowler only to be
Man of the Match
Marlon Samuels
caught by Bravo at deep
midwicket. Ben Stokes (13)
and Root, who had hit seven
crisp boundaries, had added
26 runs together when Bravo
bowled a sharp boouncer to
get rid of the former.
Moeen Ali (0), who has
perennial problem with short
ball tried to tuck one fired in
his rib cage to Denesh Ramdin
but was caught down
the leg side. Root, who was
getting edgy then, played an
uncharacteristic lap shot to be
caught at short fine-leg as England
never recovered from
the blows. England though
benefitted from David Willey’s
cameo of 14-ball 21
which helped them get past
the 150-run mark.
Already charged up after
their women’s team’s win,
the West Indies set the ball
rolling as Badree bowled
a perfect top spinner that
breached Jason Roy’s defences
in the very first over.
There was more in store
for the rampaging Windies
when Russell’s sloppy bowling
waiting to be dispatched
by Alex Hales (1) found
Badree at short fine leg. West
Indies had their gameplan
straight against the spinwary
Englishmen by sticking
to Badree up front and
the leg-spinner bowled a rare
wicket maiden in his third
over, getting the key wicket
of captain Eoin Morgan.
Continuing his lean patch
with the bat, the English
skipper was deceived by a
googly and England was staring
at doom at 23 for three in
the fifth over. Desperately
needing a partnership, England
found Butler to repair
the damage with Root.
On a track that looked
batting friendly with little in
it for the spinners, the duo
cleverly rotated the strikes
with the odd four or six in
between to step up their runrate.
Buttler was not there to
be bogged down by the Windies
and exploded against
Benn in the 11th over with
two clean hits soaring into
the crowd.
But just as England
looked to roll on there was
another breakthrough for the
Windies in the form of the
big-hitting Buttler who was
caught at deep midwicket.
For England’s bowling unit,
the hero certainly would leftarm
seamer David Willey,
who had phenomenal figures
of three for 20 in four overs
with an astounding 13 dot
balls as he increased pressure
on the Caribbean batsmen before
Stokes frittered it away.
Eoin Morgan took a calculative
risk introducing
part-time off-spinner Root in
the second over and it turned
out to be a masterstroke.
Root snuffed out Chris Gayle
(4) and Johnson Charles
(0), both trying to hit a six
and caught by Ben Stokes
in the deep. From five for
two it became 11 for three
as last game’s ‘Man of The
Match’ Lendl Simmons (0)
was caught plumb in-front by
Willey. In the final over of the
Powerplay, Marlon Samuels
(27) spanked three boundaries
off Chris Jordan to take
the score to 37.
He had a close shave
when he edged one off Liam
Plunkett to Buttler which
Rod Tucker had given out.
But replays showed that the
England wicketkeeper did
not take the catch cleanly and
the batsman got a reprieve.
(The Daily Herald).