Chris Read was the unlikely hero when he transformed the complexion of the first one-day international to spur England to a narrow two-wicket win over the West Indies on Sunday.
Chasing 157 to win, England got to their target with three balls to spare after Read, strangely excluded from the England side for last week’s fourth and final Test at St John’s because of his lack of runs, blasted three sixes and one four in a vital 27 that turned the match on its head.
Read, named man of the match, destroyed the figures and the confidence of fast bowler Corey Collymore in the penultimate over before becoming the last of Chris Gayle’s three wickets for 20 runs from 5,3 overs when he was bowled with the first ball of the last
over.
After Darren Gough got a single to mid-on off Collymore and Read missed a cross-batted stroke at a well-pitched delivery, the England wicketkeeper lofted the bowler over long-off for six, sliced the next ball to the point boundary for four, lofted the fifth delivery over long-on for another six and ended the over with a single to fine leg.
”The Test situation is a different story and I will work on it at another time, but right now I am concentrating on the one-day stuff and this has been a great start for us,” Read said.
”We’ll have to improve on things we did not do quite so well in this match in Trinidad.
”It’s always difficult batting in these kinds of tight situations, but you just have to keep working at trying to get a run off every ball. If you get a ball in the slot, you try to hit a boundary.
”I felt if we could get down to the last over needing 10 runs to win, I would have taken that. We got it down to three and that was unbelievable.”
That over changed the course of a match in which the West Indies appeared to be in control and it was left to Darren Gough to hit the winning runs by scooping a delivery from Gayle to deep cover for two.
West Indies had early success when England captain Michael Vaughan was caught behind for nought in the first over, but a 59-run stand for the second wicket between Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss steadied the ship.
Three wickets in the space of 4,2 overs set England back on 75 for four. One-day international newcomer Dwayne Bravo bowled Strauss for 29 in the 15th over, before Gayle had Andrew Flintoff caught behind for eight in the 18th over and Bravo bowled Trescothick for 26 in the 19th over to end with two for 31 from his allotment of six overs.
Left-hander Ian Blackwell revived England hopes with one four and two sixes in 27 off 21 balls, but was one of three wickets in the space of nine balls that rocked England and seem to put them out of contention.
Paul Collingwood was caught at deep mid-wicket off Gayle 10 in the 24th over, Ravi Rampaul bowled Blackwell with the last ball of the 25th over, and Rikki Clarke was run out off the second ball of the 26th over.
Read then took centre stage with his enterprising batting and took England to the brink of victory.
Earlier Shivnarine Chanderpaul hit a fiery 84 to lead West Indies to 156 for five, after the match was reduced to 30 overs a side because unplayable conditions delayed the start by three-and-a-half hours.
The experienced left-hander emerged from a cautious start to belt 11 fours and two sixes from 96 balls and pulled West Indies around from the uncertainty of 25 for three in the 10th over.
There were strokes of all descriptions from Chanderpaul. He lofted a couple deliveries to the long-off and long-on boundaries, as well as cross-batted a few.
Chanderpaul, playing in front of home crowd, dominated a fifth-wicket stand of 87 with Sylvester Joseph, playing his first one-day international for three years, which lifted West Indies to a respectable total. Joseph was not out on 23.
Flintoff was the pick of the England bowlers with two wickets for 22 runs from his allotment of six overs and Gough ended with identical figures.
The two teams now move to Port of Spain for back-to-back matches on Saturday and Sunday at the Queen’s Park Oval. — Sapa-AFP