England v West Indies live! | Simon Burnton
Hit F5 or turn on autorefresh for the latest updates
Email simon.burnton@guardian.co.uk
Sign up for the Spin, our free weekly cricket email
7.55pm: "Chris Gayle must be watching this sorry performance and considering whether he made the right choice in playing in the Champions League and letting his national side embarrass themselves," writes Piers Barclay. "Oh wait, no..." No indeed, for 14 minutes ago Chris Gayle tweeted this: "I just rip up a Karaoke in bangalore ... damn I'm good at singing as well!!!!"
20th over: West Indies 113-5 (Samuels 35, Russell 12) Bopara takes the final over, and Russell is about an inch and a half short of hitting a six off the fourth ball, which bounced about that much short of the boundary rope at long on. West Indies get 11 off the over, and finish 12 runs short of Friday's total. England will need 5.7 runs an over if they're to win this. Which they will. I can be that confident, in the knowledge that if they don't I can just come back and delete this bit later.
19th over: West Indies 102-5 (Samuels 34, Russell 2) The pace has been put down again. Dernbach's third but (obviously) final over does see West Indies score their 100th run, though. And a slower ball totally flumoxes Russell, who takes a wild swing and watches the ball bounce about an inch over middle stump.
18th over: West Indies 98-5 (Samuels 32, Russell 0) Bopara's first ball goes for six, Sammy clubbing it down the ground with a horizontal bat, a baseball shot. Then Samuels inside-edges a slower ball, which flies six inches past the wicket and away for four. The pace being picked up at last here.
WICKET! West Indies 98-5 (Sammy c Borthwick b Bopara 12) Another fine catch, Borthwick sprinting to his right to gather the ball at about knee height, just short of the! boundar y.
17th over: West Indies 84-4 (Samuels 25, Sammy 5) Dernbach's second over, and Bopara misses a decent run-out chance from cover off the first ball, his throw flying over the stumps. The last ball is stylishly steered through point for four, so 10 off the over. Approximately 50% of Dernbach's deliveries are slow balls. Or are the other 50% fast balls? Who can tell?
16th over: West Indies 74-4 (Samuels 18, Sammy 2) Bopara continues, with decent variation of pace but without really troubling the batsmen. Nasser Hussain reports that Marlon Samuels "came up to me with a lot of love the other day". The mind boggles.
15th over: West Indies 68-4 (Samuels 8, Sammy 0) Patel's fourth and final over brings his second wicket, though there's a nice four for Samuels at the end of it.
WICKET! West Indies 64-4 (Barnwell c Hales b Patel 16) An excellent catch on the boundary from Hales as Barnwell attempts to hit the ball out of the ground, despite Stokes also going for the catch and ducking out at the last moment in a manner which can only be described as distracting.
14th over: West Indies 62-3 (Samuels 8, Barnwell 16) Ravi Bopara comes on, finally ending the non-stop spin, and without Friday's devastating effect thus far. The Oval seems extremely quiet in the face of this disappointing go-slow from the West Indies. "Does anyone know when England last fielded three genuine spinners?" asks John Starbuck. "Sometime in the 70s maybe?" Anyone?
13th over: West Indies 57-3 (Samuels 8, Barnwell 11) Borthwick's last over, and three from it. A very decent introduction for the lad - four overs, 15 runs and one delicious wicket.
12th over: West Indies 54-3 (Samuels 6, Barnwell 10) Swann is looking dangerous, but that turns out to be a decent over for the Windies. "From a practice point of view, do you think England should have batted and had a go at setting a target?" as! ks Tim W oollias. "I'm not sure chasing 120 again will tell us much, that and I really want to see this lad Buttler." I think you've got to take the decision most likely to bring you victory, but it would be nice if we could just keep batting for a while even if say England win in short order, just for fun.
11th over: West Indies 47-3 (Samuels 5, Barnwell 4) Borthwick continues, and a rather fine job he's doing even if he can't match the movement of Patel and Swann. Highlight of the over is Butler's attempted run-out, which went nowhere near the wicket but damn near decapitated Kieswetter. "Lovely bit of drift on that googly from Borthwick as well," writes Phil Sawyer of that delivery that did for Charles. "Criminy, if England are finally unearthing a decent leggie as well we're heading into the realms of the unreal now."
10th over: West Indies 44-3 (Samuels 4, Barnwell 2) West Indies just aren't scoring runs here, under England's spin strangulation. Half-way through the innings, and they're all set to post an abysmal total. Some finger-pulling in the out direction needs to happen sharpish.
9th over: West Indies 43-3 (Samuels 4, Barnwell 1) That's Borthwick's first wicket in international cricket, "I think it's safe to say the batsman had no idea", say Sky, and that's pretty much how it looked from here. Everything's going so well for Swann he's going to have a bowl himself.
WICKET! West Indies 42-3 (Charles b Borthwick 21) Just as Charles looked to be getting into gear, Borthwick tries a googly and bowls him through the gate. Nice.
8th over: West Indies 38-2 (Charles 16, Samuels 4) Patel continues, and it's all going very well before Charles takes a couple of little steps and thwacks the fifth ball over long on a long way over long on for six. "For some reason Clare Davies (3rd over) doesn't mention the most important victory of this summer: Lancashire are finally County Champions again," writ! es Phil Sawyer. True, but an English team was always likely to win that one.
7th over: West Indies 29-2 (Charles 9, Samuels 3) Scott Borthwick comes on. "Another good move from Swann," grins Nick Knight, and it's a decent enough first over, disciplined rather than particularly exciting. More gloating, from Jeremy James: "Good for the cyclists - now can we hear it for Europe's women golfers? They only won the Solheim Cup. Yay!" Anything else?
6th over: West Indies 25-2 (Charles 7, Samuels 1) Graeme Swann, whose decision-making on Friday appeared blessed, is in luck again. There's spin here for Patel, and just one run comes from the over.
WICKET! West Indies 24-2 (Bascombe lbw b Patel 3) Patel comes back in, gets a low edge with his first ball it bounces about a foot behind the bat, no chance of a catch and a wicket with his second.
5th over: West Indies 24-1 (Charles 7, Bascombe 3) Two of the first four balls faced by Bascombe were bouncers. "What do they know about Bascombe," ponders Bumble. More than me, almost certainly. He's an aggressive opener, I think/just read on Cricinfo.
4th over: West Indies 20-1 (Charles 7, Bascombe 0) Patel's spin not having brought immediate reward, the ball is tossed to Jade Dernbach. His second ball, a slow one, is too full and distainfully boshed through deep cover by Smith, but his good times swifly ended. On Friday West Indies had compiled 42 without loss at this stage.
WICKET! West Indies 18-1 (Dwayne Smith lbw b Dernbach 11) Absolutely plumb, that one. Not much more to be said. The ball was low and straight, and there was absolutely no hesitation from Illingworth.
3rd over: West Indies 14-0 (Charles 7, Smith 7) Once again the first ball of the over is swept for four. "Just as we get going with the last international of the season, is there time to yell out some HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to World Champion Mark Cavendis! h?" asks Clare Davies. Yes Clare. Yes there is. Though there's no need to shout, really. "Superb by all our boys to support Cav and bring home the first Road Race Rainbow jersey since Tommy Simpson in 1965. Best in the world at Test cricket earlier this summer and best in the world at cycling. Doesn't get much better than this." Well, some element of footballing success would be nice at some point. A hugely improbably Rugby World Cup victory would certainly be good. But still, I take your point.
2nd over: West Indies 8-0 (Charles 2, Smith 6) An interesting ploy, to start with spin, but Samit Patel's first ball is swept away for four. There are a couple of half-decent lbw appeals, but Richard Illingworth is not interested.
1st over: West Indies 2-0 (Charles 1, Smith 1) Tim Bresnan, as on Friday, opens the bowling. Charles and Smith were pretty much the only West Indies players to have left the Oval on Friday without a blanket over their heads. They each get a single by way of a starter.
6.28pm: It's uncanny, given their opponents in the big Test series, that England sign off for the season to be immediately faced with an Indian summer.
6.25pm: So West Indies line up as follows, with Fidel Edwards, Nkruma Bonner and Danza Hyatt all dropped: J Charles, DR Smith, MC Bascombe, MN Samuels, CD Barnwell, DJG Sammy (c), DO Christian (wk), AD Russell, GE Mathurin, D Bishoo, K Santokie
6.23pm: More from the Press Association: "The West Indies gave debuts to Miles Bascombe, Garey Mathurin and Krishmar Santokie. Santokie, 26, has played just 13 times in Twenty20 cricket for Jamaica and never featured in a first-class fixture."
6.14pm: So the England team looks like this: Kieswetter (wk), Hales, Bopara, Stokes, Bairstow, Patel, Buttler, Bresnan, Swann (c), Borthwick, Dernbach.
6.13pm: This just in from the Press Association: "England handed a Twenty20 debut to Durham leg-spinner Scott Bo! rthwick for the final international of the summer against the West Indies at the Oval. The 21-year-old came in for seamer Steven Finn in the only change to the side that routed the tourists by 10 wickets on the same ground on Friday. Graeme Swann, captaining for the second time, won the toss and again opted to insert the West Indies having bowled them out for for 125 last time."
6.04pm: Won won won won won won won won no result won won drew won won.
That's England's summer since the ODI defeat to Sri Lanka at Lord's on July 3. Which is quite good, but one "won" short of a satisfactory conclusion, as Graeme Swann will see it. (Their record this summer up until then: won drew drew lost won lost lost, which is less good, so we'll simply ignore it, shall we?)
Team news coming, as I get it.
Earlier: This was here before I arrived, self-evidently. I've left it here, for completists. Simon will be here from 6pm in time for tonight's 6.30pm start. In the meantime, here's an extract from David Hopps's match preview, focusing on Alex Hales.
Barely a week seems to pass these days without another young English cricketer being hailed as a star of the future. First Jonny Bairstow, now Alex Hales. England debutants used to be so diffident, now they take to the international stage as if they have been preparing for the opportunity for most of their lives.For Hales, an upright and naturally aggressive Nottinghamshire opener, an unbeaten half-century in a 10-wicket trouncing of the West Indies at The Oval on Friday night came as a relief after his first-ball duck on Twenty20 debut against India at Old Trafford last month. Then he missed what he concedes was "a gun-barrel straight ball" and was lbw. "This time I was just relieved that Darren Sammy bowled that first ball where he did short and wide," he says.
That one Sammy delivery encapsulated West Indies' shoddy display, one on which they will be desperate to improve in the second and ! final t2 0 at The Oval on Sunday evening. Many of their best players are playing Champions League by preference, and Chris Gayle has long become cricketing mercenaries with little concern for the future of Caribbean cricket.
You can read the full article here. Watch highlights of the first Twenty20 against West Indies here. And why not browse our gallery of the first T20 against West Indies?
Comments