West Indies send England crashing out of World Twenty20
Gayle's West Indies beat England by five wickets
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Monday, 15, Jun 2009 10:38
England crashed out of the World Twenty20 after suffering a five wicket defeat at the hands of West Indies in a pulsating game at the Oval, reports inthenews.co.uk's Richard James.
The hosts set what appeared to be a respectable target of 161-6 off their 20 overs, with opening batsman Ravi Bopara top scoring on 55.
However, after the rain came down during the innings break the West Indies were set a revised target of 80 to win off nine overs with the Duckworth Lewis method coming into play.
England appeared to be on top early on after removing danger-man Chris Gayle in the second over but Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan steadied the ship, scoring a total of 26 runs off successive overs from James Anderson and Stuart Broad to secure a famous victory and progress to the semi-finals.
Having won the toss England captain Paul Collingwood opted to bat first and the hosts received an early boost when it was announced West Indies strike bowler Fidel Edwards had failed a fitness test just minutes before the start of the game.
Their joy was short-lived though when Luke Wright failed once more with the bat and skied a Kieron Pollard delivery into the hands of West Indies wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin in only the second over,
As has been the case for a worrying number of games now, England were forced to rely on Kevin Pietersen to get their innings going and he didn't fail to disappoint smashing a quick-fire 31 before falling to the bowling of Lendl Simmons, caught going for a six in the deep by Andre Fletcher.
At the other end Bopara was steadily going about his business building a sensible innings which eventually formed the nucleus of England's total. By the time Pietersen fell England were on 68-2 after eight overs and should have looked to push on.
Instead, the hosts appeared to struggle due to a lack of any real big-hitters in the middle order and the decision to drop pinch-hitter Dimitri Mascarenhas in place of the spinner Adil Rashid looked to be coming back to haunt England.
Owais Shah fell to a spectacular catch by Fletcher off the bowling of Dwayne Bravo for 18 and England's run-rate began to slow considerably.
Bopara was eventually out for LBW to the West Indies skipper Chris Gayle in the 16th over, his 55 runs coming off 47 balls. Shortly afterwards the players came off for half an hour due to rain, a warning of things to come later.
On their return England added 32 runs, ten of which came from the last two balls of the innings when Stuart Broad smashed a four and then a huge six over Sulieman Benn's head.
The rain came down once more following the conclusion of England's 20 overs and following an extended rain break West Indies were set 80 to win off nine overs.
England started with real purpose, their pace attack causing the visitor's top order all kinds of problems. Fletcher was the first to fall in the first over, caught behind by James Foster off the bowling of James Anderson.
What appeared to be the major break through then came in the next over when Ryan Sidebottom destroyed Gayle's stumps with a beautiful yorker and when Simmons fell in the next to Stuart Broad the England fans began sensing a glorious victory under the Oval floodlights.
It wasn't to be however, and despite the recalled Rashid removing Pollard for nine and Foster taking another smart stumping to remove Dwayne Bravo off the bowling of Graeme Swann, England's bowling attack faltered right at the wrong moment.
The seventh and eighth overs both went for 13 runs each with the experienced heads of Sarwan and Chanderpaul punishing the bad balls to the boundary without ever being coaxed into playing any rash shots.
West Indies needed just three runs off the last over and despite some brave bowling from Sidebottom, England couldn't prevent Sarwan hitting the winning boundary and sealing a famous victory.