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| April 21, 2007 | Saturday | Rabi-us-Sani 03, 1428 |
Lara seeks farewell win against England today
BRIDGETOWN, April 20: West Indies captain Brian Lara will be keen to cap his last international match with a win against England when the two under-performing teams clash in the World Cup here on Saturday.
“I am bidding farewell to international cricket as a player after the game,” Lara said after his team's 99-run victory over Bangladesh in a Super Eights game here on Thursday.
“We still have the World Cup to finish and we have a job to do on Saturday.”
The dashing left-handed batsman holds twin batting records – 400 not out against England in the Antigua Test in 2004 and 501 playing for Warwickshire against Durham in a first-class match.
Lara is also the only West Indies batsman to have completed 10,000 runs in One-day International cricket.
“We need a win ahead of the West Indies tour of England and it'll be a big boost ahead of the trip,” said Lara.
Saturday's match will also be the last for England coach Duncan Fletcher who is stepping down after an eight-year stint with the national side.
Lara and England skipper Michael Vaughan are both under pressure to perform, with the West Indies captain having just one half-century and his counterpart none in eight matches at the tournament.
Neither side can reach the semi-finals with defending champions Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa all having made it to the last-four.
Both England and the West Indies performed much below expectations as they failed to beat a big side. England have so far posted just one win against a Test-playing nation in the tournament when they beat Bangladesh.
The West Indies began the tournament impressively when they trounced Pakistan, Ireland and Zimbabwe to qualify for the second round, but disappointed their fans after losing the first four Super Eights matches.
Inconsistent batting was the main reason for their below-par performances as specialist batsmen could not deliver when it mattered most.
The same is true of England who have been relying on a couple of batsmen, including hard-hitting Kevin Pietersen who is the only player with a century to his credit.
“Our batting has not been any good through the tournament and it's an area we have to work on,” said Vaughan, who has so far scored 130 runs in eight Cup matches.
“We know we have a big game on Saturday. We have to come out and improve our performance. We know we are out of the World Cup but we have a lot of pride and we realise that there are a lot of supporters out here who we have let down, so it's important we put in a good performance.”
England's batting problems are not confined to top of the order; Andrew Flintoff's form has also not been encouraging as he has so far made only 77 in seven matches.
Vaughan, however, will stay as captain against the West Indies for May's Test series his team's flopped Cup campaign.
“Michael Vaughan is the England captain. I talked with the chairman of selectors and he wants him to lead the side into the West Indies Test series,” said England cricket chief David Morgan.
Teams (from):
WEST INDIES: Brian Lara (captain), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Smith, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Dwayne Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Ian Bradshaw, Corey Collymore, Jerome Taylor, Denesh Ramdin, Devon Smith, Lendl Simmons, Daren Powell, Kieron Pollard.ENGLAND: Michael Vaughan (captain), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Paul Collingwood, James Dalrymple, Andrew Flintoff, Ed Joyce, Stuart Broad, Sajid Mahmood, Paul Nixon, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Liam Plunkett, Andrew Strauss.
Umpires: Rudi Koertzen (South Africa) and Simon Taufel (Australia).
TV umpire: Billy Bowden (New Zealand).
Reserve umpire: Steve Bucknor (West Indies).
Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka).—AFP
Match starts at 6:30pm (PST)
Weather forecast: 27 degrees Centigrade, humid conditions.
Pitch report: Hard with pace and bounce.
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