England failed in their bid for a series-leveling victory as the West Indies held on stoutly for a hard-fought draw in the fifth and final Test on Tuesday.
England’s bowlers put in a big effort, after the visitors set West Indies 240 for victory from a minimum of 66 overs, but the home team resisted strongly to finish on 114 for eight when time ran out.
Graeme Swann was the pick of the England bowlers with three wickets for 13 runs from 21 overs, Jimmy Anderson snared three for 24 from 16 overs, and Monty Panesar bagged two for 34 from 19.5 overs.
The result meant England lost the five-Test series 0-1, following an innings and 23-run defeat in the opening Test at Sabina Park in Jamaica, where they bowled England out for their third-lowest total in Tests of 51. This was followed by the aborted second Test at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground in Antigua, and drawn Tests at the Antigua Recreation Ground (ARG) and Kensington Oval.
The result also means that the visitors surrender the Wisden Trophy, symbol of Test supremacy between the two sides.
England made breakthroughs at regular intervals throughout the evening period to get a strong sniff of victory, but the West Indies ninth wicket pair of Denesh Ramdin and Fidel Edwards survived 19 balls to deny them. England made a giant leap forward, when Swann trapped Shivanrine Chanderpaul LBW for six in the fourth over after West Indies continued from their tea-time total of 78 for three.
Three overs later, Anderson claimed Brendan Nash LBW for one to intensify the pressure on West Indies and leave them on 85 for one.
But time and overs, and not runs, were important, and England continued to work their way through the West Indies batting, when Panesar was fortunate to have Ryan Hinds caught at second slip for the top score of 20. TV replays showed Hinds never got a touch on a delivery that spun back and hit his front pad, and ballooned to Paul Collingwood, and he could not appeal the decision since West Indies had already used up their two referrals.
England knew that a lame Chris Gayle, still moving gingerly from his hamstring strain when he reached his hundred two days earlier, was the last vestige of hope for West Indies, and when Panesar had him LBW for four, the visitors moved in to finish things off.
Six overs later, Anderson bowled Daren Powell for a duck, and this brought Edwards to the crease, and he again defied England and prevented them from winning a Test as he and Powell had done in the third match at the ARG. Before lunch, Pietersen reached his hundred from just 88 balls, when he flicked Lionel Baker through backward square leg for a single, as he led England’s charge for quick runs after they continued from their bedtime total of 80 for three.
But he was dismissed off the third-last ball before lunch, when he was caught at deep mid-wicket off Fidel Edwards pulling a short, rising ball. Pietersen had added 106 for the fifth wicket with Matt Prior in a sensational hour and 15 minutes of batting.
He had reached his 50 from 42 balls with the fifth of his nine fours off left-arm spin bowler Hinds, and Prior soon celebrated his 50 from 39 balls, when he turned a ball from Simmons into mid-wicket and picked a single. But Prior, who was named Man-of-the-Match, was bowled for 61, when Baker extracted his middle-stump, and West Indies were able to slow things down a bit more.
■SEHWAG SMASHES NZ
AFP, HAMILTON, NEW ZEALAND
India sealed their first ever one-day international series in New Zealand yesterday after Virender Sehwag smashed a brutal quick-fire century in the rain-shortened fourth match.
India won by 10 wickets to go 3-0 up in the five-match series as openers Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir treated the New Zealand bowling attack with disdain.
New Zealand scored 270 for five in 47 overs in their innings and more rain interruptions saw India declared the winners after reaching 201 for none from 23.3 overs.
Sehwag scored 125, reaching three figures off just 60 balls to record the seventh fastest one-day century ever and the fastest by an Indian player, ensuring India’s first one-day series win in New Zealand in six attempts.
Sehwag’s armory of pull shots, drives and cuts saw the opener finish with 14 fours and six sixes from his 74 ball innings.
The squat 30-year-old now has 11th ODI centuries in a career known more for brute force than deft touches, and he said after his latest hundred he was loving the flat pitches and short boundaries in New Zealand.
Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni described Sehwag’s batting as “amazing to see.”
“That was the key, we wanted to play our natural cricket and that’s what they were doing,” he said of the opening pair.
New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori described the result as “a good old-fashioned hiding.”
“We didn’t really get ourselves in the game, [were] a little bit short with the runs and then Sehwag and Gambhir played outstandingly to take the game away from us.”
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