Thorpe guides England ahead

Experience won over youth yesterday as England batsmen Graham Thorpe, Mark Butcher and Nasser Hussain taught the young, exuberant West Indian fast bowlers a cricket lesson. The English veterans guided their team to a first innings lead of 92 runs at the close of the third day of the second Cable and Wireless cricket Test at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port-of-Spain. SCORES: West Indies 208 vs England 300/6. The trio, with a combined count of 239 Tests among them, showed that flair is not all and  grinded the West Indian bowlers to the ground in taking England to safety from an overnight position of 54 for two for a lead of 92 runs on first innings.

Thorpe was unbeaten on 81 at the close and Ashley Giles undefeated on 28 as they added 70 runs in an unfinished seventh-wicket stand that has given England real hopes of a second successive victory in the series. The visitors won the the First Test by 10-wickets at Sabina Park with a day to spare last Sunday. Firstly Butcher and Hussain extended their third wicket association to 127 before the West Indian fans had anything to cheer about. The solid Butcher scored his half century off 142 balls with seven fours, much to the delight of the huge “Barmy Army” contingent in attendance. While Butcher played smoothly, Hussain was prepared to rough it out and grafted for his runs. His was not a fluent knock but his contribution cannot be underestimated.

The duo batted unfazed in the morning session and soon after the lunch break, Tino Best, the best West Indian bowler on show, removed Butcher for 61 to a catch behind the wicket by Ridley Jacobs. Butcher left with the score at 129, although television replays showed that he was unlucky to be given out as he missed an ambitious drive outside the off stump. At this stage the West Indians got a sniff of getting back into the match but Thorpe, the most reliable English batsman, joined Hussain and they added a further 57 runs before Hussain’s vigil ended. The former Madras, India-born English captain was bowled by the impressive Best for 58 which came in 353 minutes off 223 balls with six fours. Andrew Flintoff was next in and after scoring several beautifully timed boundaries he fell to part-timer Dwayne Smith for 23. Pedro Collins then quickly accounted for wicketkeeper Chris Read (3) and the West Indies were back in the fray with the score on 230 for six. However that was to be their last success of the day, as Giles and Thorpe frustrated the bowlers to add what could be a match winning 70 runs for the seventh wicket. Giles, who has scored two Test half centuries in his career looked the part and remained unbeaten on 28 that included just one boundary. Thorpe on the other hand has so far struck eight fours and a six in his unbeaten 81. Play on the fourth day today gets underway at 9.30 am to make up time lost to rain. 

Oval Scoreboard
WEST INDIES VS ENGLAND
West Indies 1st Inns 208
England 1st Innings
(Overnight 54/2)
M Trescothick c Sanford b Best 1
M Vaughan lbw b Collins 0
M Butcher c Jacobs b Best 61
N Hussain b Best 58
G Thorpe not out 81
A Flintoff c&b Smith 23
C Read lbw Collins 3
A Giles not out 28
EXTRAS (B 5, LB20, W3, NB17) 45
TOTAL (For 6 wickets — 121 overs) 300
Wkts. at: 2, 8,128, 186, 218, 230.
BOWLING: Collins 23-5-66-2 (NB6), Best 25-5-60-3 (NB2, W1), Sanford 26-6-60-0 (NB2, W1), Collymore 24-7-39-0 (NB4), D Smith 9-0-30-1 (NB3), Gayle 13-5-17-0, Sarwan 1-0-3-0.