Michael Vaughan would have been mighty worried when the hosts got off to an excellent start. The West Indies put on 131 runs for the opening partnership in barely 24 overs with Chris Gayle back to his explosive best (79 off 58b). Once again, though, the Windies lost their way and found themselves in a spot of bother at 181/4. Thanks to some fine hitting by Marlon Samuels (51 off 39b) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s 34 that the West Indies managed 300 all out with one ball to spare. England’s bowlers were literally tonked around the park with the best figures coming from captain Michael Vaughan (3/39).
The English reply started well, then stuttered and then got back on track. This time, Andrew Strauss opened with Vaughan and although he and Ravi Bopara (who came in at number 3) fell cheaply, Kevin Pietersen made use of the final opportunity to register a century. It was his 100 (91b) and Michael Vaughan’s 79 at better than a run-a-ball, that took the English to relative safety. But once Vaughan fell, there was a mini-procession that saw Andrew Flintoff and Jamie Dalrymple fail yet again.
Paul Nixon, England’s saviour through the tournament stepped up yet again and his pyrotechnics almost got them home. But it wasn’t before some more drama was had in the final over. With three needed to win off five balls, Nixon was bowled by Dwayne Bravo and that left England needing three off four balls and just one wicket standing. A rather loud and confident appeal for LBW was then turned down by the umpire and England scampered three runs with a ball to spare.
By far one of the better matches on the Super Eight, England will rue the fact that they did not play like this in earlier matches. One more victory would well have seen them through to the semi-final. For the West Indies, yet another loss to a Test-playing nation and the retirement of Brian Lara sound a bit like doom. Brian Lara’s farewell was perhaps among the worst with Lara being run out by partner Marlon Samuels for just 18 and then his team failing to defend 300.
The small matches are now over. Just three games and six days separate us from the next World Champion team.
On his future plans
"I don't know what the future holds on the cricket field, you've just got to wait and see,"
On what he thought about his team's chances prior to the start of the World Cup
"I thought that we were well set for leaving the World Cup a successful team, if not winning the World Cup at least making it to the semi-finals or the final,"
On the reasons for retiring from the international arena
I just thought there is no need for me to be out there physically, there is nothing much I can do to help at present. I was hoping to go to England to play but unfortunately that's not happening"
On Caribbean cricket
"I have unconditional love for West Indian cricket and I am looking forward to playing a part at any point in time. I'd like to now have a bit of break though away from the game."
England captain, Michael Vaughan
On Brian Lara
'He's a genius. There are not many geniuses in the game and we're losing one today, so we all wish him well. He's scored a lot of runs against us and it will be nice to play against the West Indies without him,'
On England maintaining the nerves right through the end
'At stages today (Saturday) we showed what a side we can be. We have won the game but we've got to be realistic and say we haven't played as well as we should have done throughout this tournament.
On the importance of their win as the semi-finas berths were already taken up.
'What was important was that we know we play West Indies (at home) in a few weeks time and we wanted to get one up on them going into the Test series.
Man of the Match, Kevin Pietersen
On leaving the Caribbean soil with a win
I'm just pleased for Fletch that we got the victory on his last day. We've had a disappointing winter, but I'm looking forward to the next couple of years - they could be very good ones for us,'
England coach, Duncan Fletcher
On Kevin Pieterson's match winning knock
'He has a huge amount of talent and a lot of skill to go with that, his hundred was a great effort. He has plenty more runs in the locker and he could end up being similar to Lara if he carries on working hard.'
