Cricket Life

Scorecard and Video Highlights  At Bridgetown, April 1, 2, 3, 2004. England won by eight wickets. Toss: England. England stormed West Indies' once-impregnable fortress of Kensington Oval, just as they did almost precisely ten years earlier. On that occasion an overmatched team staged an improbable one-off smash-and-grab raid. But now the walls of the citadel have been demolished and pigeons haunt the empty halls. Against a well-marshalled invading force like Michael Vaughan's England there was no defence. For much of this brief but compelling Test match, the two teams looked evenly matched. But England had the inner strength to come through their crises. Their bowling was effective, disciplined and - at moments - touched by magic. The West Indian batting, by contrast, was prone to regular outbreaks of wretchedness. This was a total reversal of the old world order, and West Indies capitulated inside three days. England not merely clinched the series but ...

Scorecard and Video Highlights  At Port-of-Spain, March 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 2004. England won by seven wickets. Toss: West Indies. Less than a fortnight after the start of the series, England secured their main objective of the tour when they retained the Wisden Trophy, a prize they had barely sniffed for 27 years until 2000. The triumph could have come even quicker: they won after 23 minutes on the final morning of a match in which the equivalent of a whole day's play was lost to rain and bad light. Once again Harmison was the dominant figure in England's success, and was responsible for perhaps the crucial moment of the series. This came after West Indies had made an excellent start, with Gayle leading the charge in hot, sunny conditions on a pitch with far less pace than its Sabina Park predecessor. His century opening stand with Devon Smith, containing 82 in boundaries, came up in the 25th over. But at that point, clouds filled the blue sky and light ra...

Scorecard and Video Highlights  At St John's, April 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 2004. Drawn. Toss: West Indies. Test debut: G. O. Jones. One hundred and eighty-five days after losing his position as scorer of Test cricket's highest innings, Brian Lara reclaimed the record from Matthew Hayden and became the first man to reach 400 in a Test. Nearly a year before Hayden accumulated 380 against Zimbabwe in October 2003, supplanting Lara's 375, Steve Waugh had predicted in print that Hayden would beat him one day. It required less genius to predict who was most likely to overtake Hayden, and it took Lara only 19 innings. Twenty-five minutes before lunch on the third day, he danced down the pitch to hoist Batty's invitingly flighted off-break into the stand at long-on for the six that lifted him past his own 375 and level with Hayden at 380. He then swept the next ball, flatter and ill-directed, to fine leg for four, to secure once more the record he had tak...

Scorecard and Video Highlights  At Kingston, March 11, 12, 13, 14, 2004. England won by ten wickets. Toss: West Indies. The denouement came like a bolt from the clear blue Kingston skies. For three days this was a gritty arm-wrestle of a match; then, on the fourth morning, West Indies collapsed for 47, their lowest total ever. Steve Harmison, bowling with cold-eyed purpose, finally came of age, taking the cheapest seven-wicket haul in Test history in a performance described by his captain Vaughan as "one of the greatest spells by an England bowler." This was an exaggeration: only one batsman, Jacobs, got a real snorter. And Harmison himself felt he was to bowl better in Port-of-Spain five days later. No one played any truly appalling shots either, but the chips fell exactly where England wanted. The exception was the last-wicket partnership that inched West Indies past the symbolic mark of 46 - England's total when they were terrorised by Curtly Ambr...

Scorecard and Video Highlights Few cricketers play a Test innings that will become an Ashes legend. Mark Butcher joined this elite when he struck an exhilarating 173 not out to ensure single-handedly that there would be no "greenwash", and show that, for a day at least, McGrath, Gillespie and Warne could be tamed. Butcher's score matched that of Don Bradman in 1948, when Australia made 404 for three here on the last day to win against the odds. But the immediate comparison was with Ian Botham's 149 not out in 1981, when his hitting transformed not only a match but a whole summer, and a whole sport. Butcher's knock was not as important as that. A fairer parallel would be the fabled 1902 innings of Gilbert Jessop, whose attacking shots and endless verve inspired a remarkable Test victory no one thought possible. As here, it was England's only win of the series. Butcher's innings, entirely out of character with the rest of a one-s...

Scorecard Toss: Pakistan. Test debuts: Pakistan - Shahid Israr, Sikander Bakht; New Zealand - N.M.Parker. Dropped catches, most of them by their new wicket-keeper, Shahid Israr, prevented Pakistan from translating their vast superiority into another comfortable win. All the same, a draw was a creditable result for the tourists, who had lost the first two Tests so heavily and who now found themselves playing without their captain and leading batsman, Turner, because of injury. The enforced change in captaincy brought about no alteration in New Zealand's luck with the toss. Mushtaq won it again and Pakistan amassed a total of 565 for nine declared. The innings contained three hundreds and was notable for Majid Khan becoming the first Pakistani and the first from anywhere in 46 years to score a Test century before lunch. His innings was packed with imperious hooks and fluent, effortless cover-drives. Javed scored 206 and Mushtaq registered his second centur...

Scorecard  The ground was largely attended, 7000 being present before the day was out. His Excellency the Governor, and Lady Bowen, and Lady Harris, were among the company who filled every place of vantage for witnessing the match, deemed by all one of the most important of the programme. Lord Harris won choice, and, after due thought, chose his side should bat, but his decision had hardly been given when rain fell freely for a short period. Mr. Lucas and Ulyett commenced the batting; and so unfortunately was it commenced and continued, that the second ball delivered Ulyett played on before a run was scored. With the score at six Mr. Webbe was bowled; at 10 Mr. Lucas was bowled; and at 14 Mr. Hornby was bowled. Lord Harris stayed well, but when Mr. Royle had made three single's, Spofforth's bowling captured three wickets with three successive balls - the victims being Mr. Royle, Mr. Mackinnon, and Emmett, seven wickets being then down for 26 runs. Mr. Absolo...

Scorecard Toss: England. Test debuts: England - C.J.Barnett, C.S.Marriott; West Indies - B.J.Sealey. After their capital work at Manchester, the cricket of the West Indies in the concluding Test match proved disappointing, and early on the third morning England were successful in an innings with 17 runs to spare. Once again no great fault could be found with the bowling and fielding of the tourists, but the batting proved unworthy of a Test match and they did not display any marked ability in dealing with some really splendid bowling by C. S. Marriott. Taking part in his first Test match, the Kent amateur made the most of his opportunity and by clever fighting of the ball, perfect length and spin, he obtained in the two innings eleven wickets for 96 runs - one of the best performance accomplished by a bowler when playing for England for the first time. England won the toss and, staying in for practically the whole of the first day, put together in the course of fiv...

Scorecard The second of the three Test matches was left drawn, but the West Indies enjoyed the satisfaction of putting together their highest total in a Test match against England, in England, while to Headley and Barrow fell the distinction of being the first two West Indies batsmen to make hundreds in a Test match in this country. On a pitch from which Clark alone proved capable of making the ball rise above stump high, the West Indies, on the first day, scored 333 for six wickets, their batting success after so many previous disappointments being quite welcome and affording probably just as much enjoyment to English people as it did gratification to the tourists themselves. In this match the visitors were assisted by Constantine. He did not achieve much distinction as a bowler, but he played two good innings in his own inimitable style, his 64 on the last day coming at a time when there was just an outside chance of England forcing a win. No account of this Tes...

Scorecard Played at LORD'S Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, June 24, 26, 27. England won by an innings and 27 runs. Although nearly the whole of the first day was cut to waste through rain, England, if scoring at no great pace later on, won the opening Test match by four o'clock on Tuesday afternoon in an innings with 27 runs to spare. The West Indies cricketers indeed, had little in the match upon which to congratulate themselves. Certainly their bowlers kept a powerful England batting side fighting hard for runs and although fault could be found at times, the fielding was on the whole fairly good, but the batting, apart from that of Grant in each innings and Headley at the second attempt, proved singularly disappointing and lacking in real class. One might express the opinion that the occasion was too much for the tourists. This was forcibly exemplified by a comparison between the two elevens when they were on the field. Frankly, the West Indies did not look a g...

Scorecard Played at AUCKLAND, March 31, April 1, 2. Drawn. Drawn, like the other Test because of the weather, the second match against New Zealand was made memorable by the record score of Hammond, whose 336 not out surpassed Bradman's 334 obtained at Leeds in 1930. The great performance was the more remarkable as it came after a poor batting display by New Zealand. Dempster, at the wickets while all the home team's 158 runs were scored, alone showed real ability to cope with Bowes. The Yorkshire fast bowler beat Mills and Weir with consecutive balls without a run on the board and a notable feature of his work was that in dismissing six men for 34 runs he hit the stumps each time. Hammond went in when Sutcliffe left at 56 and got his runs out of 492 - a wonderful proportion. Hitting freely from the start Hammond completed 50 in seventy-two minutes, and his hundred came less than an hour later. His third fifty occupied only thirty-eight minutes and, after reachin...

Scorecard  Toss: England. Test debuts: New Zealand - D.L.Freeman, H.D.Smith, P.E.Whitelaw. A violent dust storm and bad light followed by rain caused the match to be left drawn when New Zealand, having followed on 337 behind, had scored 35 without loss. The match opened in sensational fashion, Sutcliffe falling in the first over and Paynter to the first ball of the second, while between these disasters Hammond gave a chance in the slips. This error, typical of New Zealand's faulty fielding, proved disastrous, Hammond took charge of the game and though England's fourth wicket fell at 133, Jardine, in a stand for 87, had by that time helped Hammond retrieve an alarming situation. There followed such fierce hitting that 242 runs came in two hours twenty-five minutes before further reward fell to New Zealand. Ames rivalled Hammond in powerful driving; both men pulled hard and used the cut as discretion prompted. They began by adding a hundred runs in sixty-fi...

Scorecard and Video Highlights  England won the fourth Test match by six wickets, so being successful in the rubber and regaining The Ashes. They arrived in Brisbane in a fairly comfortable frame of mind, having proved victorious in two of the three Tests already decided, and their cricket in this game proved from first to last better than that of the Australians. Once more Jardine captained his side with remarkable skill, his management of his bowlers and his placing of the field being worthy of great praise. In this respect he certainly outshone Woodfull, who had under his command three new men, while in the England side Voce, who was unwell, stood down for Mitchell. Bromley and Darling were brought into the Australian eleven as left-handers likely to counteract the effect of Larwood's leg-theory bowling, and Love kept wicket as Oldfield was not well enough to take his usual place behind the stumps. The Australians at times seemed to have more than a reason...

Scorecard and Video Highlights The rubber having been won by England, the batting of both sides in their first innings in the last Test match was generally much brighter than that which previously had been seen. The strain was lifted from both sides, but Australia gave a poor display in the second innings and England demonstrated their superiority over their opponents in no uncertain fashion in winning by eight wickets. Unfortunately the match was marred by bad catching, each side being at fault, and to Victor Richardson in particular it must have proved a dismal memory, for going in first again with Woodfull he was dismissed without scoring in each innings. On the other hand, Verity had joyful recollections, bowling so well as to take eight wickets for 95 runs, five of them in the second innings for less than seven runs apiece, while Larwood, although damaging his foot when bowling, came out as a batsman with a splendid innings of 98. What a pity he could not have...

Scorecard and Video Highlights  At Johannesburg, March 31, April 1, 2, 3, 4, 2006. Australia won by two wickets. Toss: South Africa. Australia's reputation for losing dead matches was dented when they fought as though their lives depended on the result and pulled off a thrilling victory. It earned them their first whitewash in South Africa - and inflicted on South Africa their first in a home series of three or more Tests since 1895-96, when they lost 3-0 to England. Set 292 (comfortably the highest to win a Test at the Wanderers), Australia were carried to the brink of victory by Martyn, with a diligent, high-class century, and over the line by tailenders Lee and Kasprowicz - something they had famously just failed to do eight months earlier at Edgbaston. It was quite a game for Lee, who announced his engagement at the end of the Second Test and celebrated with the match award here. He seized three wickets in the South African first innings - including Kallis, captain i...

Scorecard and Video Highlights  At Mumbai, March 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 2006. England won by 212 runs. Toss: India. Test debut: O. A. Shah. Andrew Flintoff asked for a "monumental effort" from his team before this match, and they delivered a monumental victory - England's first Test win in India in 21 years, and their biggest by runs on Indian soil. It squared the series 1-1, a fine achievement for any party touring here, but a marvellous one for a side missing half their first-choice players. This was the complete performance from England: debutants, comeback kids and ancient journeymen were galvanised in the liquid heat of Mumbai by Flintoff, a cricketer who could now simply pass by the title "The Inspiration". While an estimated 3,000 visiting English fans celebrated with uncontained joy at the Wankhede Stadium and in the bars of South Mumbai, home supporters were mutinous. No sooner had the presentation ceremony commenced than the arena resounded with...

Scorecard and Video Highlights  At P. Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo, September 14, 15, 16, 18, 19. Drawn. Toss: South Africa. The final day of the series was abandoned after heavy overnight rain soaked the ground. But Sri Lanka had probably forfeited their chance of drawing level already, thanks to their negative batting on the third day, when they added only 128 in 72.5 overs. Needing no more than a draw to win the series, South Africa had every reason for confidence when Wessels decided to bat on another slow pitch. They took the score cautiously to 51 before Hudson prodded a catch to short leg off Dharmasena; Wessels was bowled by an in-swinger from Liyanage (who had replaced fellow-seamer Wickremasinghe) four balls later. There were more alarms when Cronje, Rhodes and McMillan were out in quick succession in mid-afternoon, reducing South Africa to 128 for five. But Cullinan and Richardson batted sensibly, both reaching their highest Test scores by the cl...

Scorecard and Video Highlights At Galle, March 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 2004. Australia won by 197 runs. Toss: Australia. Test debut: A. Symonds. After the first innings of this fabulous Test, Sri Lanka's position looked as impregnable as the stone fort that dwarfs the Galle stadium. They had a lead of 161, the world's most complete spinner ready to bowl on an arid pitch, and history overwhelmingly in their favour - only nine Test sides since 1900 had overcome such a deficit and won. Ponting's honeymoon as Test captain looked likely to last around four days. But Australia turned it round. The last Tests to see such a swing pivoted round a freakishly brilliant spell by Shoaib Akhtar for Pakistan against New Zealand at Wellington ten weeks earlier and a miraculous innings by V. V. S. Laxman for India against Australia at Kolkata in 2000-01. This time it was just hard cricket and self-belief that won it. In horrible heat, Hayden hit a century of little styl...