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England take Champions' Trophy

Well, we don't know about Adam, but we'll take odds that all of England, waking up tomorrow and finding, in the papers, word that their much-maligned side has actually beaten, in the space of one tournament, Pakistan, India and the West Indies (twice) to take the Champions' Trophy, are going to be surprised.

Pleasantly so.

It couldn't have happened to a better bunch of cricketers, come to think of it. England came here shorn of stars. With a motley crew of inexperienced, unheralded bits and pieces players under a debutant captain. And in the course of four games, here, showed that pre-match preparation, sound strategic planning, and wholehearted application in the field and with the bat, can do more for a side than all the stars in the galaxy.

In the process, England without an authentic batting star in their ranks also did something none of the other sides could do -- batting second, they chased a target that has in course of this tournament proved too good for higher ranked, star-studded batting lineups. And made it in style. Again, how? Simple -- where the stars pancked, England's lesser known cricketers kept their nerve, kept taking the singles. The philosophy of the England end game was simple -- if you take a run, that is one less you need, and sooner or later the ball will fall in the slot for the big hit. As Geoffrey Boycott is so fond of saying, you can't get runs sitting in the pavilion -- so the batsmen hung out there, gritted it out, kept their cool. And won.

West Indies captain Courtney Walsh seemed to get it all right, at the outset. He won the toss. Elected to bat. Dropped the rather erratic Philo Wallace and sent out Shivnaraine Chanderpaul alongside Stuart Williams to open. And the left-right combo did Windies proud -- a superb blitz fetching 62/0 in the first ten overs, to send the batting side off to a real flier.

Throughout this tournament, it is the slower bowlers who have pulled the game back when the bat threatened to run away with the game. And it was so again here -- Doughie Brown and Dean Headley gave way to Robert Croft and Mark Ealham and suddenly, the runs dried up. Windies at this stage needed to keep pushing singles along -- but caught up in the exuberance of their earlier big-hitting, they kept trying for more of the same, and Williams inevitably succumbed, holing out to Croft.

The Brian Lara dismissal, stumped by Alec Stewart, is going to cause some controversy, so we'll elaborate. Mark Ealham bowled one across the left-hander's off stump when Lara was batting 2. The batsman stretched forward and played a casual push, and missed. Stewart collected and his glove moved towards the stumps. Lara at the time was in the process of completing his follow through -- the bat was on the upswing, the back foot was dragging forward in the usual balancing act of a batsman who stretches too far... so Stewart waited that extra heartbeat and, as toe touched line, took the bails off and appealed successfully.

There was some talk of sharp practise, some suggestion that when the keeper got the ball, it was "dead". That is, we fear, merely the cribbing of someone made to look foolish. When the batsman is in his follow through, it counts as part of the stroke, when the keeper is going towards the stumps with the ball in his glove it counts as part of play and Stewart needs to be complimented, not condemned, for having the presence of mind to wait that extra fraction before effecting the dismissal.

Hooper and Chanderpaul pulled it back for the West Indies with a good third wicket partnership before Mathew Fleming -- who couldn't have had a better day of playing superhero if his grandfather Ian Fleming, creator of the legendary James Bond, had scripted it -- made his first impression on the game. Chanderpaul played to point, Fleming flung himself way to his right to field and, while still sliding, threw down middle stump from a prone position, catching Chanderpaul off his ground after a superb innings of 76 off 109 that anchored the Windies together and made one wonder, afresh, why this talented batsman was batted so low in the order in earlier games.

Hooper again looked in ominous touch, till Mathew Fleming decided to roll up his sleeves and get right into the thick of things. A straight ball on middle, keeping low, caused Hooper to miss with his flick. LBW. Two balls later, an identical ball, Roland Holder flicked, got edge onto pad and was, rather surprisingly, declared LBW by Umpire K T Francis -- apparently the umpire hadn't spotted the bat-edge onto pad. The very next ball, straight ball again, Rawl Lewis this time got it on the pad, he was a goner for sure, but Francis thought otherwise. Four balls. One plumb decision. One wrong decision in favour of the bowler, one wrong decision against. And suddenly Windies were 200/6 and in trouble, the slog overs rapidly disappearing and the superb start seemingly going to waste. More so when Franklyn Rose, at the same score, took off for a non-existent run and Croft effected a brilliant run out with the direct throw from mid off.

Simmons hung in there. And in the final two overs, launched a blitz that saw Windies go to 235/7 in the allotted 50 overs -- not quite as much as they looked like making at one stage but, all things considered, a more than decent total to defend.

For England, the slower bowlers were superb. Ealham, bowling unchanged from the 11th over on, had 10-1-26-1. And Fleming at the death bowled 8-0-42-3. Two standout performances, lots of support from Croft and Hollioake, and backed, right through, by outstanding fielding that never wilted even under pressure.

If the West Indies got off to a dream start, England's reply was nightmarish. Alistair Brown chased at a lovely leg cutter from Franklyn Rose to give cover a nice easy catch, Nick Knight's judgement of a short single proved woefully unsound and England were 89/2 in 20.1 -- well behind the required rate, on a track where run-getting gets slower as the game goes on. In fact, if England got even that far, discredit goes to shoddy West Indies bowling -- in a score of 63/1 in 15, there were no less than 17 extras. (In fact, the indiscipline of their bowlers was to give the game away at the very end as well, when more no balls and wides took the pressure off England at a crucial moment in the chase, and indeed, the stage has come when one can safely deduct about 20 runs from any West Indies total, knowing that the bowlers will give at least that much away).

Rawl Lewis was always going to be the key in tandem with Carl Hooper, and between them, the two spinners did a wonderful job to peg England right back. Hooper bowled Stewart (51 very good runs off 67 deliveries) and underlined, yet again, that the England keeper-batsman is very bad at reading spin out of the hand -- this was the straight one and Stewart, playing for off spin, played inside the line to miss and find his off stump pegged back. Lewis meanwhile, having had Hick pull him for a huge six, kept his nerve and gave him another ball in the same slot in the next over, Hick went after it and was easily caught at midwicket. England skipper Adam Hollioake, struggling to get runs -- as his 17 off 40 indicates -- against sustained, steady spin bowling, finally came charging out to Hooper and was stumped down the leg side and shortly after, Walsh brought himself back on, bowled a straight line and castled the desperate Mark Ealham as the batsman looked to swing to on.

England 161/6 in 40 overs. 75 to get in 60 deliveries with only Graham Thorpe and the lower middle and tail to do it with. From a much better position the other day, India had committed mass suicide. England, not so long ago seen as a side that cracks under the least pressure, not only held its nerve, but turned the screws right back on the West Indies.

Largely instrumental was Graham Thorpe. The left-hander played Lewis superbly, sweeping with the turn or playing late against the turn to off side, working the singles, talking his partner, Fleming, through a rather shaky beginning and, by getting the odd big hit, keeping the runs coming through the next five overs to take England to 206/6 in 45. At which point, Mathew Fleming took charge. When Lewis pitched short, he pulled for four. Then came the sweep. Then a lovely cover drive. Two no balls from Lewis as the pressure increased on the young leggie. And England, from that point on, essentially cantered the rest of the distance to the winning post. Fleming, in anti-climactic fashion, was run out with the scores tied, but Thorpe's unbeaten 66 off 74 deliveries, and Fleming's own brilliant cameo of 34 off 27, had by then given England a memorable win.

For the West Indies, much food for thought. Here was a won game thrown away by slipshod fielding -- we lost count of the number of run out chances the Windies fielders muffed -- indisciplined bowling (five wides and 8 no balls, often at crucial times, not only giving away 13 runs, but also giving England 2.1 extra overs) and a fatal tendency to relax going into the last ten overs, figuring perhaps that the game was already won, saw the batting side turn the tables. Interestingly, Courtney Walsh missed a bet when he failed to use Chanderpaul's leg spin against the Englishmen -- he had been so effective against India the other day, restricting runs and forcing errors to end with 3/18, it seemed strange that against an England lineup not too used to spin bowling, the option was not tried at all.

In the event, a famous victory for England. And back to the drawing board for all other teams, as they try and figure out ways and means of coping with the new-look England bowling line up.

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