The English cricket team claimed a five wicket victory over the West Indies. Stuart Broad was the superstar of the bowlers for England, taking 11 wickets, seven in the first innings and four in the second innings while James Anderson and Graeme Swann took three apiece across both innings. Andrew Strauss was the star batsmen on the first innings with a knock of 122; but failed in the second innings, being caught for one run, we saw the best and worst of Strauss in this game!
England bowled out the tourists for just 243 runs in just under 90 overs in the first innings with Stuart Broad leading the bowlers taking 7 wickets for 72 runs in just under 25 overs while James Anderson claimed two wickets for 59 runs in 25 overs. Shivnarine Chanderpaul was top scorer for the Windies with 87 not out supported by Barath, 42 runs and Samuels, 31 runs; but overall as a team, the West Indies failed as a whole with six players failing to make it to double figures.
England’s first innings was much better scoring 398 runs in 113 overs; taking a 155 run lead into the second round of innings with Andrew Strauss hitting 122 runs from 258 balls supported by Ian Bell, 61 runs and Jonathan Trott, 58 runs. Bowling honours go to Roach and Gabriel claiming three wickets apiece, Sammy claiming two wickets while Samuels and Edwards claimed a wicket apiece.
The West Indies had it all to do in their second innings and played better hitting a total of 345 runs in 131 overs. Chanderpaul was top scorer, topping his first innings score with 91 runs on the board; closely followed by Samuels, 86 runs and Ramdin, 43 runs. Broad claimed another four wickets while Swann claimed three wickets, Anderson and Bresnan claimed one apiece. The Windies poor first innings looked like costing them, England only needing 191 runs to win the first test!
Watching the finals innings of the game from England, I had visions of a collapse as four wickets fell for just 57 runs, Strauss for one, night-watchman, Anderson for six, Trott for 13 and Kevin Pietersen for 13. Before Alistair Cook and Bell steadied the ship scoring 79 and 63 respectively, guiding England past the finishing post with five wickets to spare to claim victory at Lords.