England win after farcical finish

Eurosport - Sat, 21 Mar 17:38:00 2009

England claimed their first international win since August in farcical circumstances when West Indies miscalculated the Duckworth-Lewis target at the end of the opening one-dayer in Guyana.

CRICKET England celebrate victory over the West Indies in the first one-day international - 0

West Indies, chasing England's 50-over total of 270 for seven, were offered the chance to go off due to rain and bad light and their Australian coach John Dyson beckoned the batsmen off the field.

However the hosts were one run short of the Duckworth-Lewis target, the method used to calculate results when the full overs are unused, and with no opportunity to return to the field England were declared winners with West Indies on 244 for seven from 46.2 overs.

Dyson left his seat in the pavilion to consult match referee Javagal Srinath and England were soon celebrating their first win since a one-day victory over South Africa at Lord's.

"I was on the wrong column (on the sheet) ... I thought we were ahead of Duckworth-Lewis but in fact we were behind by one run," Dyson said.

"There was a lot of noise going on and it was my responsibility so that was it.

"I accept responsibility for it and I've apologised to the team and that's all I can do. It was my mistake.

"It was getting dark and it would have been nice to have been ahead by one run," added Dyson.

England captain Andrew Strauss appeared confident as his side walked off the field.

"We looked at the sheet and it seemed to suggest we were one run ahead," said Strauss.

"When the batsmen walked off we were pretty confident we had won. Everyone in our support staff was 100 percent certain we had won and there were some pretty good celebrations in the changing room," added a grinning Strauss.

Earlier, England posted a challenging total thanks to a smart 43 off 62 balls from opener Ravi Bopara and good work in the middle-order from Paul Collingwood (69) and Owais Shah (62).

West Indies, in reply, lost skipper Chris Gayle for two before Lendl Simmons (62) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (57) put on 125 for the second wicket at a steady pace.

The game appeared to turn in the home team's favour when Shivnarine Chanderpaul cracked paceman Steve Harmison for 26 (five fours and a six) in one over.

It was back in the balance though after Chanderpaul was dismissed for 46 and hard-hitting Kieron Pollard fell for 42.

Stuart Broad grabbed his third wicket when he trapped Denesh Ramdin leg before for 11 with the second ball of the 47th over.

Before the new batsman could take strike the light was offered and the crowd were left bemused and West Indies embarrassed by their mistake.

The second game in the five-match series is in Georgetown on Sunday.

Reuters

Comment 50 - 69 of 69

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  1. Montage I have lived in 5 countries ,and in each of­ them the sports commentators have favoured their team,­ so dont be so upset.

    From laboca123, on Sat 21 Mar 4:22PM

  2. Sky sports is a british channel. Do you think the west­ indies tv commentators would be any different?

    From laboca123, on Sat 21 Mar 4:20PM

  3. All I am healring about is the goings on of both teams.­ How about some negative comments regarding the English­ Sky reporters. Talk about bein biased. I thought­ commentors were supposed to neutrals. Do me a favour.­

    Guru

    From Knox, on Sat 21 Mar 3:54PM

  4. david..obviously would have won???

    From laboca123, on Sat 21 Mar 3:40PM

  5. The match should have at least been declared a draw­ obviously West Indies would have won and for the­ England team to celebrate like they did was an­ embarresment for English sport.But what do you expect­ from a sport that has now all the soccer type thugs­ being selected players like Prior,Flintoff,Peterson­ etc. what was once a good clean sporting game is now­ being dragged down to the level of football.

    From DAVID, on Sat 21 Mar 3:15PM

  6. The windies test series win was farcical

    From laboca123, on Sat 21 Mar 3:06PM

  7. Any way England­ won||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||­ ||||||||||||

    From wjysry, on Sat 21 Mar 2:18PM
  8. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    How can any England player walk away from this fiasco­ & justify his fee? Total utter rubbish! Get rid of­ the G&T brigade who run (ruin?) English cricket­ & get players in who are hungry for victory for­ their country, not their own gratification!!

    From Victor, on Sat 21 Mar 2:09PM

  9. i wanted the west indies to win but hey, i dont mind

    From robertbarrie96, on Sat 21 Mar 12:52PM

  10. adding to my previous post [I meant 3 fires !] I have a­ wicketkeeper problem shouldn't have ! Why the hell­ is Matt Prior the absolute choice in all forms of the­ game? We got an unheard of clown for the 20/20!! Matt­ is a great keep and he can HIT the ball.

    From Ray C, on Sat 21 Mar 12:33PM

  11. Serves the West Indies right, they should have put 50p­ in the meter for the floodlights and also Dyson should­ stick to making hoovers instead of trying to work out­ D/L.

    From bazdscott, on Sat 21 Mar 12:05PM

  12. Being from Durham I've long been a Steve Harmison­ fan but his day is now gone. He's too much of a­ 'homeboy' and it's time to give someone­ else his slot. Forget all these unheard of clowns we­ hear of...Simon Jones is hammering on the door of the­ hapless selectors and he has fire in his belly....add­ him to Broad and Anderson and you've 2 fires­ burning at once. New coach...has nobody heard of that­ shy fella Botham!!!

    From Ray C, on Sat 21 Mar 12:03PM
  13. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    They win a nothing one-dayer then celabrate by doing­ 'high fives' morons,just as grinding as­ touching gloves everytime they score a run.

    From ANDREW G, on Sat 21 Mar 11:57AM

  14. This West Indies side are not as bad as some people are­ suggesting. In Gayle, Sarwan and in particular­ Chanderpaul the Windies have three batsmen who would­ get into any side in the world. Chanderpaul is one of­ the greatest batsmen the Windies have produced: right­ up there with Lara, Richardson, Richards, Lloyd,­ Khanai, Sobers, etc. He can stonewall day after day -­ as England has discovered on more than one occasion,­ but when the circumstances require it he can be the­ most devestating hitter: as Harmison found out. The­ Windies bowling is weaker, but in Edwards and Taylor­ they do have two pacemen with potential, and Benn could­ become a top class spinner. However, they are two­ bowlers short.

    England's performance in the one­ day match was good in parts. Anderson and Broad bowled­ brilliantly, and Collingwood's batting was­ excellent. However, I do think Harmison may have had­ his day. Perhaps they should replace Harmison with the­ Yorkshire leg spinner Khan.

    From lochcroispol, on Sat 21 Mar 11:45AM

  15. Fascinating. I think I might start watching cricket­ now, if only to observe Harmless Harmison in action.­ Just for the record I agree with the comment about them­ getting their just desserts for pulling a flanker and­ cheating. They had absolutely no thought the­ spectators, so two good reasons for them to lose.

    From Mary, on Sat 21 Mar 11:43AM

  16. How funny is this!!!
    England are no longer the most­ negative team in World cricket; that mantle belongs to­ this exraordinarily mediocre West Indies team. They­ bored us to death with their negative tactics in the­ Test Series; i don't care if they won - let's­ face it people, it was perhaps the least deserved­ series win of all times, and the luckiest! They were­ weak and pathetic to come off - make no mistake, this­ is STILL a terrrible West Indies side and i simply­ cannot wait 'til the English summer where we­ absolutely pummel them. I predict a series whitewash­ and at least two of the Tests being won by an innings.

    From cameron w, on Sat 21 Mar 11:30AM

  17. Totally agree.The windies got what they deserved for­ not playing out what was a great game.
    But England­ should not feel any sense of achievement, knowing they­ only won by someone's mistake.

    From jilllubbock, on Sat 21 Mar 11:24AM

  18. 51 From stehouk
    i agree west indies are a joke team,­ but so are england, we musnt think we are a force­ ourselves because we are not
    they are both medicre and­ well matched

    From nobisback, on Sat 21 Mar 11:11AM

  19. Actually, I have no sympathy with the West Indies here.­ They were behaving in a gamesman-like way as soon as­ the clouds started to appear, staring at the sky and­ asking the umpires to go off when they should have been­ focussing on getting the runs. By the time the Windies­ chose to go off, the match had shaped up to be a real­ cracker and looked like going right down to the wire.­ Either side could have won. Maybe if there had been no­ hope of England winning any other way, it would be a­ hollow victory. It shouldn't be declared a no­ result and it is perfectly fine to accept the victory­ because it was bourne out of the Windies'­ miscalculation and not England cheating. When­ all's said and done, they should have played it out­ rather than looking to win by the D/L method. As it is,­ the Windies cheated the spectators, ruined what would­ have been a greatly contested ending and got exactly­ what they deserved for it.

    From Alex, on Sat 21 Mar 11:10AM

  20. w/indies are a joke team and england have managed to­ make them look a 1/2 decent outfit,dyson is the­ mastermind behind their negative tactics,this series­ has been a shocker,but at least they lost through a­ tactical error by dyson.lol

    From stehouk, on Sat 21 Mar 11:02AM
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