Wickham's musings from Chalke

 
England got 568 and 325, West Indies 416 and 267 so England won by 210 runs.

It was dull and cloudy on the first morning and Brian Lara put England in to bat hoping for some quick wickets. It was a mistake as the sun came out quite soon and it was good weather right through until Monday evening.

England got going well in their first innings with Robert Key finally showing some form for England. He has always looked nervous in the past but is presently top of the county batting averages and got a superlative 221 in this test’s first innings.

Andrew Strauss also looked solid and got 137 then Michael Vaughan got going and scored 103.

Flintoff came in when Graham Thorpe was out in the last over before lunch on Friday. Geoff Boycott was commentating and was incredulous that Lara was spending so much time with Banks over the field placing. He said it was obvious they should pull everyone in around the bat as Flintoff would just play carefully until lunch. Flintoff straight drove his first ball over the bowler’s head for six and Boycott said he should have known Flintoff would be different. Flintoff cut the next ball onto his stumps and Boycott said he had been right; Flintoff should have played for lunch.

The West Indies suffered two bad umpiring decisions by Rudi Koertzen in their first innings. Gayle was given out when he wasn’t and so was Lara when a ball snicked his pad but not his bat on its way to the wicketkeeper. Boycott said he was in favour of nearly all decisions going to the third umpire to check the television replays and I agree. If the West Indies had got a big score in their first innings the outcome could have been very different. Instead they were on the back foot from then on.

Chanderpaul got his head down and scored an unbeaten 128 runs but the West Indies fell short at 416.

Robert Key was getting going again in England’s second innings when Vaughan called him for a run but he was a bit slow, Vaughan hesitated, Key hesitated then Vaughan continued and Key ran on to be easily run out. Commentators blamed Key even though Vaughan was the first to hesitate because Key was ball-watching rather than watching Vaughan and he wasn’t totally committed to the run.

Vaughan went on to get his second century of the match with 101 not out; a feat not achieved at Lord’s for many years. Vaughan and Thorpe needed to get as many runs as possible on Sunday afternoon to get an unassailable lead and pushed on with frequent quick singles which are Thorpe’s trademark. When Thorpe was out Flintoff got a fast 58 including two big sixes.

In the West Indies’ second innings Chanderpaul was blatantly out when the ball hit the middle of his glove before being caught by Key but Rudi Koertzen gave him not out. It was too late in the game to make much difference even though Chanderpaul went on to get 97 not out so that he was unbeaten in both innings.

Ashley Giles left the off side temptingly open and got Lara out with a beautiful ball. Lara took two steps out to drive Giles through the covers but got bowled middle stump through a wide-open gate. The West Indies had a remote chance of getting the runs and Lara in particular likes to push along and not be defensive. After that they had to play for a draw.

Tino Best, one of the fast bowlers, has a reputation for saying nasty things to the batsmen and staring at them and had given Flintoff some stick. When Best was batting he took a wild swipe and missed completely. Flintoff came up behind him and said “Mind the windows, Tino!” The television cameras and stump microphones give a brilliant account of the game nowadays. A few balls later Tino took another wild swipe and was stumped by a mile. Flintoff wasn’t just laughing; he was guffawing like a teenager.

The last two wickets were very slow to get. A huge dark cloud was coming but the wind was very light. When there was only one wicket to fall it looked as if the game might be called off as a draw because of bad light but Flintoff got the last wicket before the cloud reached the ground. If Tino Best had batted sensibly they might have forced a draw.

Batting averages: Key 118, Vaughan 103, Strauss 86, Flintoff 32, Trescothick 30.5, Thorpe 28.5. Bowling averages: Giles 5 for 81 and nine in the match. He was man of the match.