Wright, Bopara thrash West Indies by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Scorecard:	England v West Indies
Player:	LJ Wright, RS Bopara, AU Rashid, RR Sarwan, XM Marshall
Event:	ICC World Twenty20 2009

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DateLine: 4th June 2009

 

The West Indies' poor run against England continued as they were again thrashed by nine wickets and 32 balls to spare in their warm-up game at Lord's. The English side was propelled by some enthralling batting by openers Luke Wright and Ravi Bopara who added 119 runs. Wright finally finished with 75 from 48 deliveries after giving the stands a peppering and justifying his role as a perfect T20 opener for England.

 

The story was almost the same as against Scotland where both the openers first played themselves in for a couple of overs, the only difference being this time they got going. Wright struggled initially and the pressure was building, but he found his range as he got into Lionel Baker, then Bopara also opened up as he took four crunching boundaries off Dwayne Bravo's opening over.

 

West Indies fielding was again a poor show. Suleiman Benn dropped a regulation chance at mid-wicket when Bopara was on 29 and the way the duo were batting the match was soon out of reach.

 

Wright hit three consecutive leg-side sixes in Kieron Pollard's first over which cost 22. He moved to his fifty off 36 balls. Bopara played with a lot of ease and some of his boundaries were a treat for the eyes. His raised his half century in 31 deliveries and it was looking as though England would cross the winning line without losing a single wicket until Bopara holed out to deep midwicket against Shivnarine Chanderpaul's occasional spinners.

 

Wright though carried on in his usual aggressive fashion. He crunched Chanderpaul for another six and then showed his ability to carter pace as well by creaming Fidel Edwards down the ground.

 

Earlier, West Indies struggled for any real momentum. Their only saving grace was a 46 from Ramnaresh Sarwan who remained unbeaten and made sure their total crosses the 140 run mark. Stuart Broad was the most economical bowler for the English and Adil Rashid also went for just five-an-over during his four overs.

 

They also started off well as the opening partnership after settling down tried to raise the tempo, with Andre Fletcher launching James Anderson over mid-off for six, before the first horrendous misunderstanding left Fletcher stranded as he tried to come back for a second.

 

A couple of deliveries later Chanderpaul was stunningly caught at third man by Ryan Sidebottom, who ran around to hold the top-edged pull. West Indies also did not help their cause even a bit with some of their running when Pollard was the second to fall to poor calling as he sprinted up the pitch only to find Marshall hadn't moved an inch.

 

Rashid scalped the prized wicket of Dwayne Bravo and the spinner was taken for just one boundary in his spell of four overs. He was of course helped by the fact West Indies had lost early wickets.