Swann has West Indies in a tailspin

England were in full control of the third Test after career-best bowling from Graeme Swann carried them to a 281-run first innings lead over West Indies on Tuesday.

 

England - who trail the hosts 1-0 - were 31 for one in their second innings when stumps were drawn on the third day at the Antigua Recreation Ground.

This followed Swann taking 5-57 from 24 overs, as West Indies were dismissed for 285, replying to England's first innings total of 566 for nine declared.

Ramnaresh Sarwan hit the top score of 94 for West Indies, and there were supporting knocks of 38 from Devon Smith, 27 from Ryan Hinds, and 22 from Daren Powell.

England decided not to enforce the follow-on, and suffered an early loss, when their captain Andrew Strauss was caught at second slip for 14 off the fiery Fidel Edwards.

The visitors chose to send James Anderson in as night-watchman and he was fortunate to have survived. On four, he edged Edwards to third slip, where Hinds muffed a simple chance.

Earlier, England toiled on the hard, easy-paced ARG pitch and took all their chances after West Indies continued from their overnight total of 55 for one.

 

Before lunch, it was Swann's off-spin bowling, rather than the fast bowlers that provided England with two wickets, as West Indies reached 132 for three at the interval.

West Indies lost the wickets of Smith and Powell in the second hour before lunch.

The ARG pitch, as expected, played a few tricks, but England's bowlers were not accurate enough, and the West Indies' overnight pair of Smith and night-watchman Powell studiously navigated the first hour.

But Swann provided the breakthrough, when Smith tried an ugly-looking slog at a flighted delivery and was bowled by the second ball after the drinks break.

Strauss continued to rotate his bowlers, particularly the fast bowlers from the southern end of the ground in an effort to make use of a ridge in the middle of the pitch which made batting difficult.

But Swann was allowed to wheel away from the northern end and got his second scalp, when Powell was caught at slip playing defensively forward in the last 15 minutes before the interval.

The West Indies fast bowler had shown enormous restraint in a little over two hours spent at the crease before Swann outfoxed him.

 

After lunch, England claimed two wickets - one of them Shivnarine Chanderpaul - to tighten their grip on the Test at tea.

Andrew Flintoff removed Hinds and Stuart Broad got Chanderpaul for one in the space of nine balls, as West Indies reached 221 for five at the break.

Flintoff made the breakthrough for England, after Hinds had added 70 for the fourth wicket with Sarwan, when the left-hander edged a leg-cutter and was caught behind.

Next over, England got a bonus wicket, when Broad had Chanderpaul also caught behind driving loosely at a delivery outside the off-stump.

 

After tea, England met resistance from Sarwan and Brendan Nash. They added 50 for the sixth wicket before Swann returned to snare two wickets from consecutive balls.

Swann had Sarwan caught at mid-wicket playing an ugly cross-batted slog, and next ball, Denesh Ramdin was caught and bowled when he gently pushed back a full toss to the off-spinner to leave West Indies 251 for seven.

England continued to mount the pressure and eventually snared the last three West Indies wickets for seven runs in the space of 13 balls.

Flintoff gave Swann steady support with three for 47 from 14.2 overs.

England trail 0-1 in the series which now comprises five Tests, following an innings and 23-run defeat in the opening Test at Kingston inside four days.

The other two Tests in the series take place at Kensington Oval in Barbados from February 26 to March 2, and Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad from March 6 to 10.

Shell-shocked England seek Antigua tonic

West Indies and England head into the second test in Antigua in contrasting moods with the common aim of putting the astonishing first test out of their minds.

The tourists, shell-shocked after being bowled out for 51 to slump to an innings and 23 run defeat in Kingston, sorely need to focus purely on the next game.

West Indies, whose celebrations should have been tempered by the knowledge that they have had several false dawns during their long period of decline, can ill-afford to get carried away with a triumph that cheered the Caribbean.

Both teams should remind themselves that Saturday's batting collapse was all the more dramatic because it was so unexpected since West Indies had not won a test against the English in their last 16 attempts going back to 2000.

This current West Indies team has more bowling options following the emergence of lanky left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn and they have a more resilient middle-order thanks to the presence of Australian-born Brendan Nash.

Many passionate Caribbean fans will wait before talking of corners being turned until Chris Gayle's side have shown consistency.

Excluding back-to-back wins over Bangladesh, the last time West Indies won two successive matches in the same test series was at home to Australia in 1999.

That should give England heart along with the fact that the wicket at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground is one of the flattest in international cricket, offering little help to pace or spin.


TOURISTS DISINTEGRATED

If England captain Andrew Strauss is looking for a way to inject positive thinking into his team, he need only refer to the last time the tourists disintegrated in the Caribbean.

In 1994, in the third Test in Trinidad, a team captained by Michael Atherton were skittled for just 46 in their second innings when Curtly Ambrose ran amok with six wickets.

Just over a week later in Barbados England scored 355 and 394 to win by a margin of 208 runs.
England kept faith with the same team for both those games but that is unlikely this time with Ian Bell likely to be replaced by Owais Shah at number three.

Seamer James Anderson was left out of the first Test and is an alternative to Steve Harmison or Ryan Sidebottom.

West Indies will definitely make a change with Lendl Simmons, nephew of former test batsman Phil Simmons, expected to replace Xavier Marshall at number four.

The other option available to Gayle and coach John Dyson is Barbados all-rounder Ryan Hinds who bowls off-spin and bats in the middle order but with Gayle increasingly happy to bowl his own off-breaks, Simmons seems the likely choice.

IPL Second Season

Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff became most expansive player in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Kevin Pietersen with 1.55 million USD most expensive player of the Indian Premier League. Kevin Pietersen breaks the record of Mahendra Singh Dhoni from last season of IPL. In last season of IPL Mahendra Singh Dhoni was the expensive player of IPL with 1.5 million USD.

Kevin Pietersen was captain of England team. Vijay Mallya says, “I was always keen to get Pietersen”. Kevin Pietersen joins “Bangalore Royal Challengers” (BRC). A ndrew Flintoff joins “Chennai Super Kings” (CSK). Bangalore (Bangluru) Royal Challengers spent 1.95$ USD million from their 1.35$ USD million base price.

Andrew Flintoff another England Player became Expensive for second season of Indian Premier League. Andrew Flintoff went to Chennai Super Kings whose captain was Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Andrew Flintoff attracted more bids, with his base price of $950,000 rising quickly, as Chennai, Kings XI Punjab and the Rajasthan Royals traded offers. "Flintoff is an outstanding all-rounder who will give value and improve the balance of the team," said N Srinivasan, the secretary of the BCCI and owner of the Chennai Super Kings.

Indian Premier League (IPL) to bid for 17 players at auction. With a total of $13.59 million in their pocket, eight Indian Premier League franchisees will buy 17 players from a pool of 50 when the second edition of the players' auction gets under way on Friday. Lalit Modi told to Reporter "In tomorrow's auction, 18 players from Australia, seven from England, five from Sri Lanka, three from New Zealand, seven from South Africa, six from West Indies and four from Bangladesh would be up for grabs. This time 17 slots are available and a total of $13.59 could be spent tomorrow”.

Rajasthan Royals buy Australian bowler Shaun Tait for $375,000. Mumbai Indians bid $950,000 for South Africa batsman jean Paul Duminy. Pakistan Government takes decision for no one Pakistan player play at IPL. So Kolkata Knight Riders Replace Umar Gul's, Bangalore Royal Challengers can Replace Misbah-ul-Haq and Rajasthan Royals can Replace Sohail Tanvir and Kamran Akmal.

Rajasthan Royals bought South African all-rounder Tyron Henderson. Austrlian opener Phil Jaques went unsold with South African batsman Ashwell Prince. Another Australian Luke Wright also went unsold, the bidders not showing much interest on the Australians up for auction. Kings XI Punjab bought England all-rounder Ravi Bopara. New Zealand all-rounder Jesse Ryder was bought for Bangalore Royal Challengers while another Kiwi cricketer, Kyle Mills was taken by Mumbai Indians.South African Andre Nel went unsold. Sri Lankan paceman Nuwan Kulasekara also failed to make an impact with no team showing any interest in him.

In the auction, 18 players from Australia, seven from England, five from Sri Lanka, three from New Zealand, seven from South Africa, six from West Indies and four from Bangladesh were up for grabs. Second Season of IPL start from April 10 to May 29.