- Dellmar/Freelance Photographer
West Indies' pacer Tino Best, left, celebrates with teammates after picking up the wicket of Andy Flintoff for 15 during yesterday's second day of the third Test against England at Kensington Oval in Barbados.
Tony Becca, Contributing Editor
WEST INDIAN cricket fans walked out of Kensington Oval yesterday with smiles on their faces and hope in their breasts.
The smiles were because of a magnificent performance by the West Indies on the second day of the third Test of the Cable & Wireless series against England, and although the home team ended up trailing on first innings after the visitors were reeling at 119 for six, the hope was for a victory which, based on the Windies fight and the fact that England led by only two runs and will be batting last, they now believe is possible.
LOSING THE FIRST TWO
After losing the first two games in the four-match series and falling for 224 on the first day, the West Indies, powered by Fidel Edwards and his fast bowling comrades at arms - Corey Collymore, Tino Best and brother Pedro Collins, cornered England in the Lion's Den, and only a magnificent innings, a storybook performance by Graham Thorpe who shepherded England to 226, prevented them from taking command of the match.
In their bid to win the match and leave themselves with a chance of sharing the series, the West Indies, but for the presence of Christopher Gayle and his innocuous offspin from one end for 90 minutes and 11 overs after lunch, gave everything they had on a day of tight, exciting cricket a day that saw the fans of both sides cheering some wonderful bowling and the lovely, authentic strokes of Thorpe.
The one disappointment was the dismissal of Gayle who, with five overs to go to the end of the day, hooked fast bowler Steve Harmison twice, aimed a big drive at the fast bowler who removed him three times in the previous four innings, who routed the West Indies at Sabina Park and against Queen's Park Oval, and was bowled for 15 as the West Indies closed on 21 for one off 6.2 overs when bad light stopped play.
DEFIANT PERFORMANCE
With Edwards - four for 70 off 20 overs, Collins - three for 60 off 23, Best - two for 26 off 14, and Collymore - one for 26 off 16 overs, preening themselves on a pitch that continued to be lively, the only batsman who survived the assault was Thorpe.
The 34-year-old left-hander who, in a defiant performance that rescued England, in a brilliant innings that demonstrated his class and made him the individual star of a day to remember, chalked up his 13th Test century, his second against the West Indies, and his second at Kensington Oval while scoring 119 not out after batting for 307 minutes, facing 220 deliveries and stroking 13 boundaries before, after joining the action at 33 for three 44 minutes after the start of play, he ran out of partners.
Although they were not as ferocious, even though Thorpe made it look fairly easy, the West Indies pace quartet brought back memories of days gone by when the likes of Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh made batting for visiting batsmen at Kensington a nightmare - particularly in the first hour when the 22-year-old Edwards rocked them in a magnificent spell of six overs during which took two wickets for 11 runs, in the hour after lunch when Best and Edwards grabbed two wickets, and just before tea when Collins, probably jealous of his younger brother's haul, moved in, swung the ball both ways, and picked up two wickets.
With England resuming on 20 for one off 12 overs, Ramnaresh Sarwan dropped a straight-forward catch when captain Michael Vaughan,12 at 22 for one, went back in the morning's third over and edged the ball to second slip.
Fortunately for the West Indies, in the following over, Edwards, bowling from the pavilion end, sent Mark Butcher packing at 24 for two - the left-hander going back and edging an express delivery to Gayle at first slip.
Thirty minutes later, Vaughan's luck ran out when he attempted to pull Edwards, nicked the ball, and wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs made no mistake hauling in a head-high catch.
That was 33 for three and minutes before lunch, Collymore picked up his first wicket of the series in his 60th of the series when, with Nasser Hussain coming forward, he bowled the right-hander through the gate for 17 at 65 for four.
Best made it 90 for five when Andy Flintoff, after a confident back-foot drive to the point boundary, went onto the back foot again, attempted to drive through the covers, and with the ball bouncing awkwardly, ended up tapping it to Collymore at cover.
TRAPPED
Chris Read, the last of the recognised batsmen, hooked Edwards to long-leg and then chipped and drove Gayle over mid-off before Edwards trapped him leg before wicket for 13 at 119 for six.
After that, it was a straight battle between Thorpe and the Windies pacers, and after a well crafted innings, after stroking and smashing the ball to all points of the compass, after driving off the front-foot and off the back-foot, after cutting, hooking and pulling, with last man Steve Harmison at the other end and a well-deserved century eight runs away, he hooked Edwards to the long-leg boundary before, two deliveries later and to the delight of the thousands of British fans around the ground, he chipped and drove the pacer to the long-off boundary.
SCOREBOARD
West Indies first innings 224
England first innings
(Resumed at 20-1)
M. Vaughan c Jacobs b Edwards 17
M. Butcher c Gayle b Edwards 5
N. Hussain b Collymore 17
G. Thorpe not out 119
A. Flintoff c Collymore b Best 15
C. Read lbw Edwards 13
A. Giles c sub (Mayers) b Collins 11
M. Hoggard lbw Collins 0
S. Jones c Sarwan b Best 4
S. Harmison b Collins 3
Extras: (5lb, 3w, 12nb) 20
TOTAL: (all out) 226
Overs: 90.
Fall: 1-8, 2-24, 3-33, 4-65, 5-90, 6-119, 7-147, 8-155, 9-187.
Bowling: Fidel Edwards 20-4-70-4 (4nb), Pedro Collins 23-6-60-3 (5nb, 1w), Corey Collymore 16-3-26-1 (3nb,1w), Ryan Hinds 4-1-7-0, Tino Best 14-4-26-2 (1w), Chris Gayle 13-3-32-0.
West Indies second innings
C. Gayle b Harmison 15
D. Ganga not out 5
B. Lara not out 1
Extras: 0
TOTAL: (for one wkt) 21
Overs: 6.2.
Fall: 1-19.
Bowling: Matthew Hoggard 3.2-1-5-0, Steve Harmison 3-0-16-1.
