England in West Indies

[Darren]

Congratulations to Lara, However, it could be interesting if England do get a draw. I think people will once more be calling for Lara to resign. He may be a great batsmen, but he is not a team player. He played for himself. It took an hour to get from the world record to 400. If there are rain interuptions like on the first day and England get the draw that hour could be vital.

 

[rocklara]

Oh give me a break darren!

he wanted to place a score and 400 will be the ideal score. it will still be a draw anyways, but if i was the one batting there and im certain for u too, u would probably have 400 in mind! cut the guy some slack man! he aint goin to resign anyways as a captain, they can call for his sacking all they want, there isn't any replacement right now!:o

 

[Darren]

I am only going from the impressions that I got watching on tv and listening on the radio. With Lara on 390 portions of the West Indies crowd were booing!

All credit to Lara, he was fantastic and deserved to get to 400, and yes of course I would want the score but you can not disagree with the fact that portions of the fans in the stadium wanted him to declare when he got the world record so as to have more time to bowl England out. I was shocked when the fans started booing, but thats what happened.

 

[brad352]

There is no doubt Lara was playing for himself- he's a great batsman but a poor captain. In a similar situation Mark Taylor declared at stumps on 334 to give his team maximum opportunity to win

 

[Auwais]

I don't think Lara would have declared if he was on 400* and the West Indies total was 748/5. He said himself before going into the pavillion for lunch, he wanted to get the West Indies to 750 and that if he got the chance to reach 400 runs, he would.

 

[jonah]

Originally posted by brad352
In a similar situation Mark Taylor declared at stumps on 334 to give his team maximum opportunity to win

I thought he declared so as not to overtake Bradman's then-record of 334, as a mark of respect.

 

[FishBowlMan]

Originally posted by jonah
I thought he declared so as not to overtake Bradman's then-record of 334, as a mark of respect.

That's correct jonah - they were talking about this on the radio yesterday.

 

[Rangeela]

West Indies ODI squad

Brian Lara (capt), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ricardo Powell, Dwayne Smith, Ryan Hinds, Sylvester Joseph, Ridley Jacobs, Dwayne Bravo, Ian Bradshaw, Mervyn Dillon, Ravi Rampaul, Corey Collymore.

 

[Rangeela]

4th Test Stumps Day 4

West Indies 1st Inning 751/5d (Lara 400*, Jacobs 107*, Sarwan 90) (Batty 2/185)
England 1st Inning 285 (Butcher 52, Flintoff 102*) (Collins 4/76, Best 3/37)
England 2nd Inning 145/0 (Follow-on) (Trescothick 74*, Vaughan 61*)

England trail by 321 runs with 10 wickets remaining

 

[jonah]

At last England's openers have got a decent start this tour. Could be an interesting final day; if Tres and Vaughan can continue in this way it should peter out into a draw, but a couple of early wickets would give the Windies renewed hope.

 

[Darren]

Good to see that Lara congratulated Flintoff on his century. Was very strange not seeing any of the opposition clapping when he reached it.

Lara obviously will be man of the match but I think Flintoffs inning was fantastic, he had to scrap and be controlled, something relatively alien to him.

 

[Auwais]

Yeah. Flintoff always tries to hold the lower order and tail together to avoid a batting collapse, and if he can't, he gets the runs for England.

 

[brad352]

lol, I think they'll be a bit more that 241 though

 

[Auwais]

Whoops. It was meant to be an update, looks like I got a bit carried away. :o

 

[Rangeela]

4th Test Result

West Indies 1st Inning 751/5d (Lara 400*, Jacobs 107*, Sarwan 90) (Batty 2/185)
England 1st Inning 285 (Butcher 52, Flintoff 102*) (Collins 4/76, Best 3/37)
England 2nd Inning 422/5 (Follow-on) (Trescothick 88, Vaughan 140) (Sarwan 2/26)


Result: Match Drawn

Man of the Match: BC Lara

Man of the Series: S.Harmison

Series: England wins the 4-Test series 3-0