Jampacked Providence stadium stunned as… Coach’s error gives England win

Mar 21, 2009 Sports

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By Sean Devers
Just when the smiles were back on the faces of West Indian fans and the players seemed to be tuning the corner, a 16,000 capacity crowd at the Providence Stadium was stunned by an inexcusable miscalculation from Coach John Dyson which gave England their first win in any form of the game since last August.
Needing to be at 246-7 to win off 46.2 overs on the Duckworth/Lewis system replying to England’s 270-7 off 50 overs in the opening match of the Digicel five-match ODI series, Australian Dyson and Manager Omar Khan shockingly called the batsmen in with the regional side on 244-7 off 46.2 over when bad light was offered at 17:41hrs to gave the visitors a moral boasting one-run victory.

The largest crowd of the home series so far braved a drenching downpour just after noon to provide a Carnival-like atmosphere all day and the appalling decision to surrender the game by Dyson was heartbreaking for the fans and the players at a time when WIPA is engaged in another battle against the WICB.
Former England captain David Gower’s public advice to Chris Gayle to think hard and get some math lessons after the West Indies Captain said the debacle was ‘just one of those things and there is nothing we can do about it’ emphasized the apparent unimportance of professionalism, high standards and National pride among most West Indians.

“We just have to accept it and move on. I think the fall of the last wicket caused the confusion,” Gayle told the world at the post match presentation on International Television.
With 27 runs needed from 22 balls in fading light, a pulsating climax to a keenly contested match was anticipated and the recent survey conducted by Professor Dr Hillary Beckles’ UWI Cave Hill Campus in Barbados, which suggested that West Indian players were intellectually inferior to their opponents, could now extend to their foreign Coach as well.
“When it came down to that last wicket I didn’t go across the column. I went down the wrong column. It’s my responsibility, that’s it. I’ve apologised to the team, that’s all I can do. It was a bad mistake,” was Dyson’s explanation after the crushing loss.

After a swashbuckling 30-ball 46 from Guyana’s latest Cacique Crown of Honor recipient and ICC cricketer of the year Shivnarine Chanderpaul had injected life back into the run-chase after the English had frustrated the batsmen with on-target bowling, the end result was bitterly disappointing.
The inform Ramnaresh Sarwan again looked majestic compiling his 31st ODI fifty (57) before he clipped medium pacer Paul Collingwood, who bowled gun-barrel straight on a flat straw-colored pitch, to short mid-wicket after adding 125 for the second wicket with 24-year-old Lendl Simmons.

Simmons registered his second half-century (62) at this level before the Trinidadian lost his patience, concentration and wicket at a crucial stage.
Kieron Pollard revived his nine-match International career with an important 32-ball 42 but it was the usually sedate Chanderpaul, who exploded with an array of savage shots in an over from pacer Steven Harmison which cost 26 runs that set Providence on fire as the ‘Tiger roared’ and his adoring fans danced in the stands.

However, once Chanderpaul swept a fullish off-stump lined ball from pacer Stuart Broad to forward square leg and Dwayne Bravo (1) was trapped leg before to James Anderson in the next over, England had struck two vital blows in the space of a run and at 213-5 with eight overs left, the pressure was back on the host, who beat England in both the Test and one-off 20/20 series.

The 21-year-old Pollard, dropped by Harmison at long-on at 31, clobbered two crunching sixes and three fours on the lightning fast outfield and his demise at 242-6 in the 46th over was one over before the startling surrender was made by Dyson to bring an anticlimactic end to a riveting contest.
Winning the toss and batting in overcast conditions, England, who were mauled 5-nil by India in their last ODI series, lost Skipper Andrew Strauss (15) when he was caught at point off Daren Powell at 28-1 while premier batsman, South Africa born Kevin Pietersen, punched a short ball from Bravo to mid-on after making 17 at 64-2.

Owais Shah, who struggled with his running between the wickets, revived the position by adding 98 for the fourth wicket with Collingwood as both batsmen hit half-centuries after Ravi Bopara (43) was leg before to left-arm spinner Nikita Miller at 117-3.
Shah, who struck five fours from 86 balls in 62, edged Bravo to the keeper at 215-4 before Pollard removed Collingwood (who made 69 from 77 balls with six boundaries) and Dimitri Mascarenhas (0) in the space of a run as England slipped to 216-6.
Matt Prior hit a cameo unbeaten 26 from 21 balls with four fours to push England past 250 before Broad (8) was run out in the final over.

Bravo (2-65) and Pollard (2-46) were the most successful bowlers for the West Indies who quickly lost Gayle (2); leg before to Broad at 6-1 when they began their reply.
Simmons, who faced 105 balls and hit five fours and a six in his 62 and Sarwan, who delighted the crowd with five enterprising fours in his 76-ball 62 then orchestrated ‘operation rebuild before Sarwan wasted an opportunity to post his fourth ODI ton and Simmons fell 21 runs later as the pressure of dot balls ‘got to’ Simmons.

Chanderpaul then showed his versatility and his scoop sweep off Harmison for six was a prelude for his demolition of the pacer with five fours off the next five balls. Pollard chipped in with some big hitting before both batsmen fell without the job quite finished.
Denesh Ramdin (11) was run out while Sammy (0) and Miller (0) were at the crease when the Dyson blunder robbed the West Indies of a possible win or at least an attempt to do so.

Broad finished with 3-41 and Anderson 2-38 for England who go into tomorrow’s second ODI at the same venue with only their eighth win from 29 matches against the regional side in the West Indies.
Former Guyana and West Indies players Lance Gibbs and Clive Lloyd, who collected ICC Hall-of-Fame caps during the Lunch Break, were among several former West Indies players who watched the amazing finale to the yesterday’s encounter which should leave Dyson under plenty of pressure to keep his highly paid job.

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