The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : England cruises to victory

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 03, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

England cruises to victory

By Ted Corbett

LEEDS, JULY 2. Only a few hours after a tabloid named Michael Vaughan, the England captain, one of the guilty men of British sport — alongside Tim Henman, the Wimbledon quarterfinalist, and David Beckham, captain of the Euro 2004 team — his cricketers won their fourth NatWest triangular series one-day international against the West Indies by seven wickets at Headingley in a game which, like the previous matches, finished well before the floodlights had a chance to prove their worth.

Victory came on the back of another three-wicket haul by the giant fast bowler Steve Harmison who again recorded speeds around 95 miles an hour; a catch at gully by that exceptional fielder Paul Collingwood that evoked memories of a similar snatch by Richie Benaud at Lord's in 1956; 55 by Marcus Trescothick; and the looming presence of Andrew Flintoff who played as a specialist batsman and hit one of the biggest sixes of this or any other tournament.

Essentially, England won because it batted second. It has not won a one-day match in any other way since Vaughan took over as captain and you have to look back to the World Cup to find a game in which it last set a total to win a match. In other words, one victory does not make a summer even if it does quieten the tabloids for a while.

Harmison, who hit Ramnaresh Sarwan on the helmet and continues to intimidate all the batsmen except Brian Lara, made this unwieldy idea work with figures of 10-2-31-3. That meant Vaughan did not have to spend time juggling bowlers in the last 10 overs when he might have been one of the attack — a risky business. He praised Harmison afterwards. "We all saw what he has done at Test level this year and now he is getting his head round the one-day game as well. We would like to rest him but he is such a massive part of our attack that we need him in every game. He will have a rest in the space between the one-dayers and the Tests against the West Indies and that should give him the strength to go on."

Collingwood's catch was one of the best you will see in a lifetime watching cricket. Trescothick bowled a rank long hop, Sarwan who had already been batting 77 balls for 46 leapt at this chance to score another boundary and sent the ball rocketing above head height in the gully. Collingwood leapt and pouched the ball one-handed. It was a sensational catch and it came at just the right moment as the seventh-wicket stand between Sarwan and Ricardo Powell had put on 66.

England cleared the runs in 22 overs. That possibility was clear when Vaughan was out for 14 at 55 because Trescothick was in one of his fluent moods and eventually stopped by that most hateful of dismissals when the bowler Ian Bradshaw touched the straight driven ball on to the stumps as Trescothick was backing up.

No need for any of the capacity crowd to worry at that point, however, for in marched Flintoff to join Strauss to take the score from 120 for three to 160. Flintoff's 21, off 18 balls with three fours as well as that six into the new stand, was a reminder that he is perfectly suited to the one-day format.

Is England suited to this format? We will have a better idea by the end of this tournament but it is the side least likely to qualify and on July 10 Lord's may still stage a final without the host nation.

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