England maintain unbeaten run

Chasing the West Indies’ modest 197, England survived minor hiccups and won with four wickets and 25 deliveries to spare.

Hussain, who stands seven feet 10 inches tall, happily posed for photographs with the West Indies and England team members. He towered over spectators who rushed to be photographed with him.

That, frankly was the only excitement on a drab day when Hooper, for the West Indies and Graham Thorpe for England were the only batsmen who made the sparse crowd sit up and take note.

England struggled in the early phase of their innings before Thorpe and Mark Ealham took the match away from the West Indies. Thorpe made a match-winning 57 before snicking Hooper to the wicket-keeper.

England openers, who had served them well against India, looked at sea against the West Indies pacemen. Alistair Brown, Nick Knight and Adam Hollioake were all done in by rearing short-pitched deliveries by the pacemen. In between, Chanderpaul’s incredible effort to run Graeme Hick out.

Thus England, who lost wickets at regular intervals, were reduced to 123 for five. However, Mark Ealham and the left-handed Graham Thorpe ran aggressively to piece together their invaluable 50-run sixth wicket partnership.

Earlier, the West Indies opted to bat first. Hardly had the handful of spectators settled into their seats when England’s new ball bowler Dougie Brown struck two devastating blows with the first three deliveries of the match.

He castled Philo Wallace first ball and two balls later, accounted for Friday’s hero Brian Lara, whom he trapped in front of the stumps. The West Indies, at zero for two, were off to the worst possible start.

With opener Stuart Williams, Hooper added 50 runs for the third wicket to get the innings off the ground. The left-handed Shivnaraine Chanderpaul did not stay long, but Phil Simmons helped him add 66 runs for the fifth wicket.

The downfall of Simmons severely hampered the West Indies ambitions of scoring an excess of 225 runs. Hooper kept his end going till the last ball of the innings to finish with an unbeaten 100 (135 balls, six fours).