England carried their magnificent form from Old Trafford to the picturesqueRiverside ground in Durham and virtually ended West Indies’ hopes of apassage to the final of the NatWest Series next Saturday
Andy Jalil15-Jul-2000
Worried Adams does not know which way his team is going
Photo © CricInfo
England carried their magnificent form from Old Trafford to the picturesqueRiverside ground in Durham and virtually ended West Indies’ hopes of apassage to the final of the NatWest Series next Saturday.For the second successive match, England produced a highly commendableperformance that brought them victory by a most comfortable margin of tenwickets, the first time that they have achieved it on such a scale in 314one-day international matches that they have played since the first one inMelbourne nearly thirty years ago.Capacity crowdIt was a display that would have brought some warmth to England’s supportersamong the crowd which filled the ground to capacity on a bitterly coldmorning. Ironically, by the time the game ended, the ground was bathed insunshine.It was England’s day from the start, having put the opposition in to bat,England’s bowlers remained on top throughout the innings, apart from theperiod when Brian Lara and Chris Gayle were putting on a 61 run stand,having got together on 43 for three. Needless to say there were no individualscores of any significance barring Lara’s half-century in West Indies’ total of169.Worry for West IndiesFor West Indies, the decline in both the major areas of their game since thewin in the first Test match at Edgbaston, a month ago, must now be a sourceof considerable worry. It’s true that their veteran and leading fast bowlersCurtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh are currently missing from the attack, andthat must surely take some pressure off England’s batsmen, but theirbatting – even allowing for the absence of the injured Shivnarine Chanderpaul -shows obvious lack of depth and application.It has undoubtedly put pressure on Lara who contributes substantially, bycomparison to others, but does not come up with the big scores that he is socapable of and, indeed, is expected to.It now calls for an allmighty effort from the Windies in their remainingtwo games in this series to have a chance to reach the final. They will have towin their match against Zimbabwe tomorrow and against England next Thursday,by considerable margins, and then, too, they must hope for Zimbabwe todefeat England on Tuesday, to entertain any hopes for a Lord’s final. That is the, almost unrealistic, formula that they hope will apply.West Indies attack dominatedEngland’s innings today saw a total domination of the West Indies attack.Marcus Trescothick, with 87 not out, showed he is going from strength tostrength in these limited-over matches, and as he says, he now hopes to finda place in the England Test side. Captain Alec Stewart, who formed such aneffective opening partnership with him, hitting an unbeaten 74, said:” Itsbeen two great performances on the trot. We carried on from where we leftoff at Old Trafford. They produced a very good wicket here and all credit toDurham for it and all the facilities.”