West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul plays a shot during his game-high knock of 84 against England during the first Cable and Wireless One-Day International at Bourda, Guyana yesterday. - Dellmar GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC:
IN A pulsating duel of hugely fluctuating fortunes that belied its shortened duration, England scrambled a two-wicket victory with three balls to spare in the first One-Day International at Bourda Oval yesterday.
A sliced drive by Darren Gough off Chris Gayle just sailed out of the reach of Sylvester Joseph and the ninth-wicket pair scampered the two runs needed in near darkness to take the visitors past the home team's total of 156 for five in a match reduced to 30 overs-a-side.
Indeed, as much as the result would have been a huge disappointment for the vast majority of supporters in the capacity 12,000 crowd, the fact that a match was played at all was a tribute to the tireless efforts of the groundstaff, who rehabilitated a ground that was almost completely underwater just 48 hours earlier.
A match of so many twists and turns eventually hinged on the penultimate over of the day, when the previously economical Corey Collymore was smashed for 18 runs, including two sixes and a four off successive balls by Chris Read.
Even though he was bowled by Gayle with just four runs needed in the final over, adjudicator Clyde Butts - the former West Indies off-spin bowler - decided that Read's frenetic 27 off just 15 balls was enough to earn him the Man of the Match award ahead of Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
It was Chanderpaul, who breathed life into the West Indies innings with 84, a knock of two contrasting halves that saw him starting very shakily as opener with Gayle before unfurling a dazzling array of shots with his team faltering badly at 64 for four by the 17th over.
The 29-year-old accelerated dramatically after changing his bat, completely dominating an 87-run, fifth-wicket partnership with Joseph.
As if spurred on by his controversial omission from the fourth and final Test against England in Antigua a week earlier, the determined left-hander gave his team momentum and a real fighting chance with an explosion of strokeplay after the fall of the fourth wicket, Dwayne Smith driving Rikki Clarke unerringly to mid wicket.
Earlier, Gough bowled an impatient Gayle in the fifth over and Ricardo Powell threatened only to fall caught and bowled in Flintoff's first over.
The all-rounder then dampened the enthusiasm of the full house when he trapped stand-in captain Ramnaresh Sarwan lbw for a duck just two balls later. But the other Guyanese in the batting line-up would not be moved.
With Joseph playing sensibly and feeding Chanderpaul most of the strike at a critical stage of the innings, Chanderpaul finally found his timing, eventually hammering 11 fours and two sixes - one a lofted on-drive, the other a cheeky top-edged sweep.
He threatened to go all the way to a fourth one-day international hundred before he mistimed a waist-high full-toss from Gough to give Clarke a simple catch at extra-cover to end an innings that lasted 92 deliveries.
The target seemed well within England's range, even after they lost their captain in the first over of the reply. Opening the batting for the first time in an ODI, Michael Vaughan touched a catch to the wicketkeeper to signal Mervyn Dillon's return to the West Indies side.
The other opener, Marcus Trescothick, could have been run out to the very first ball of the innings and struggled to get any sort of rhythm.
He and Andrew Strauss, however, took the score to 60 in the 15th over when the debutante Dwayne Bravo knocked out Strauss' off-stump with the first delivery after the refreshment break.
A real cat-and-mouse game developed from that point with each team claiming an advantage only to be pegged back by their opponents.
Gayle removed the dangerous Flintoff caught behind and Bravo then bowled Trescothick for 26 to leave England limping at 75 for four in the 19th over.
Ian Blackwell, who edged his first delivery off Bravo past slow moving 'keeper Ridley Jacobs to the third-man boundary, smote two huge sixes over mid-wicket before being bowled by Ravi Rampaul as the medium-fast bowler returned for a second spell.
The mood and momentum certainly seemed to be with Sarwan's men after Smith completed a superb catch on the mid-wicket boundary to remove Paul Collingwood off Gayle and Clarke was run out at the bowler's end.
Fans were already celebrating in the stands with the score at 120 for seven in the 26th over, but they did not count on Read's resilience and Collymore buckling under the pressure to produce a dramatic finale that sets the stage for the rest of the series.
