- Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
A jubilant Tino Best punches the air after taking his first Test wicket at Sabina Park yesterday.
Tony Becca, Contributing Editor
WHEN THE first Test of the Cable & Wireless Test series between the West Indies and England opened at Sabina Park on Thursday morning the promise was for a close, exciting contest and despite the rain that has interrupted the action on a few occasions, so far it is everything that was expected.
At stumps on yesterday's third day, the scoreboard read West Indies 311 and eight without loss, England 339 and with two days to go and the pitch as green and as lively as it was on the first day and expected to remain so, the match, barring rain, is heading for a thrilling finish.
On the first day, it was cricket, lovely cricket; on the second day, it was also cricket, lovely cricket; and yesterday it was again cricket, lovely cricket as the two teams battled for supremacy in an exciting duel between bat and ball - between batsmen Nasser Hussain, Graham Thorpe and Andy Flintoff of England and with Fidel Edwards leaving the field injured after bowling only 3.3 overs, fast bowler Tino Best of the West Indies.
In a brilliant display of fast and aggressive bowling, a performance which equalled and probably bettered Edward's blitz on day two, Best, three for 47 off 11 overs during the day, fired bombs after bombs at England's batsmen, silenced the Barmy Army for a while, and had the thousands of hometown fans on hand cheering, blowing whistles and horns and shouting themselves hoarse as they chanted "Tino, Tino, Tino" after almost every delivery, bouncer or yorker, in a relentless attack that with a little luck could have handed the West Indies the lead, and which, with a little help from Corey Collymore and Adam Sanford, would have done so.
RAN OUT OF STEAM
Unfortunately for the West Indies, Best ran out of steam before he could finish the job and with Collymore and Sanford bowling at a friendly pace and driven, cut, hooked and pulled for boundaries, Ashley Giles, with support from Matthew Hoggard, squeezed England to a first innings lead before Sanford bowled him off his pads.
Resuming at 154 for three with Hussain on 41 and Thorpe on one, England looked dangerous with Thorpe, the polished left-hander, arrogantly hooking Edwards to the backward square-leg boundary, going forward and driving the pacer sweetly through extra-cover, and Hussain driving the little man through mid-wicket before he left the field for the day.
Best, however, pulled out of the attack by acting captain Ramnaresh Sarwan after completing the over that was one ball old when rain chased the players off the field on the previous evening, was in a no-nonsense mood and when he was called back at 194 for four with the batsmen going well, a well-pitched bouncer was so fast that an attempted hook by Thorpe flew off the top edge and landed safely in Sanford's hands on the long-leg boundary.
For those who do not know how to celebrate something special, they should have been at Sabina Park to see how Best welcomed his first Test wicket.
Running past the stumps, past the wicketkeeper and the slip fieldsmen, Best went to within inches of where Sanford had taken the catch, dropped to his knees, clenched his fists and opened his arms in triumph, and then, with his smiling colleagues all around him and patting him on the shoulders, lifted his eyes and his arms to the heavens as if saying a big, big thank you.
Fifteen runs later, it was 209 for five when Hussain, 58, failed to get out of the way of a nasty kicker and skied a catch to mid-off.
From there on, however, it was all England until captain Brian Lara came out handed the old ball to Sarwan and then the second new ball to Best.
Flintoff, who played some wonderful strokes while scoring 58,k carelessly drove a legspinner from Sarwan to Ryan Hinds at mid-wicket at 268 for six and Best sent Chris Read packing for 20 at 278 for seven with the first delivery of the second new ball - the batsman, attempting to hook and beaten for pace, lobbing a catch to midwicket.
West Indies first innings 311
England first innings
(Resumed at 154-3
N. Hussain c sub (Bernard) b Best 58
G. Thorpe c Sanford b Best 19
A. Flintoff c Hinds b Sarwan 46
C. Read c Hinds b Best 20
A. Giles b Sanford 27
M. Hoggard not out 9
S. Jones c Sanford b Hinds 7
S. Harmison run out
(sub Powell/Hinds) 13
Extras: (7b, 28lb, 7w, 18nb) 60
TOTAL: (all out) 339
Overs: 103.2.
Fall: 1-28, 2-33, 3-152, 4-194, 5-209, 6-268, 7-278, 8-313, 9-325,10-339.
Bowling: Corey Collymore 26-7-55-0 (9nb), Fidel Edwards 19.3-3-72-3 (7nb, 2w), Tino Best 19-1-57-3 (1nb, 4w), Adam Sanford 22-1-90-1 (1nb, 1w), Ryan Hinds 11.5-2-18-1, Chris Gayle 1-0-6-0, Ramnaresh Sarwan 4-1-6-1.
West Indies second innings
C. Gayle not out 8
D. Smith not out 0
Extras: 0
TOTAL (for no wicket) 8
Overs: 3.2
Bowling: Matthew Hoggard 2-0-8-0, Steve Harmison 1.2-1-0-0.
