Home
News
In Focus
Business
Metro
Nation
World
Sports
Feature
Opinion
View more »Opinion Columns
Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
Restaurants get off to a quick start thanks to game-changing policies
High service charges on event ticket refunds call for further regulation
Sunday
- Subscribe
Related News
Windies eye England series win
Source: Agencies |
March 4, 2009, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
IN a scenario few would have predicted at the start of the tour, West Indies are a draw away from their first series win over England in 11 years.
However, West Indies skipper Chris Gayle said the team was thinking only of winning the fifth and final test in Port of Spain, which starts on Friday.
"Definitely, we are looking for the win. We are not going to go out and play for the draw and be negative. We still have to play positive cricket," Gayle told reporters on Monday after the fourth test had petered out to a dull draw.
"Once you go out with a negative mentality it can do more damage to you."
After England's defeat at Sabina Park in the first test, where it was defeated by an innings following a batting collapse of 51 all out, a tied series is the best captain Andrw Strauss can gain.
Strauss has no choice but to seek victory or his team will head home having lost the Wisden Trophy.
"It was obviously a big goal for us to come out here and win and we can't do that now," he said.
"I don't think we have any real excuses for where we are at the moment but it would be nice to be on level terms certainly. But the way we played in Jamaica wasn't good enough and that's why we are where we are at.
"If you look back to Jamaica we had a terrible session of cricket that cost us the game and since then I think we have played some good cricket and maybe we haven't quite got what we deserved. But we have one more opportunity to level the series," he said.
West Indies have named an unchanged squad of 13 for the final test and the only selection choice is likely to be whether to stick with Ryan Hinds or give batsman Lendl Simmons his debut test on his home ground.
Strauss, without injured allrounder Andrew Flintoff and with a bowling attack that has yet to really fire, has some tougher choices to make.
Seamer Steve Harmison, dropped for the fourth test, is hoping for a recall, left-armer Ryan Sidebottom's place is under-threat and Danish-born Amjad Khan, flown in as cover for Flintoff, might also be a consideration.
Strauss said England could well opt for five frontline bowlers at the Queen's Park Oval.
"It's certainly one of the options that we've got. It's very clear that we need to take 20 wickets so that's definitely going to be an option we'll consider," he said.
The last time West Indies won a test series of any kind was against Bangladesh in 2004, a year after their last victory over an established test nation - Sri Lanka.
However, West Indies skipper Chris Gayle said the team was thinking only of winning the fifth and final test in Port of Spain, which starts on Friday.
"Definitely, we are looking for the win. We are not going to go out and play for the draw and be negative. We still have to play positive cricket," Gayle told reporters on Monday after the fourth test had petered out to a dull draw.
"Once you go out with a negative mentality it can do more damage to you."
After England's defeat at Sabina Park in the first test, where it was defeated by an innings following a batting collapse of 51 all out, a tied series is the best captain Andrw Strauss can gain.
Strauss has no choice but to seek victory or his team will head home having lost the Wisden Trophy.
"It was obviously a big goal for us to come out here and win and we can't do that now," he said.
"I don't think we have any real excuses for where we are at the moment but it would be nice to be on level terms certainly. But the way we played in Jamaica wasn't good enough and that's why we are where we are at.
"If you look back to Jamaica we had a terrible session of cricket that cost us the game and since then I think we have played some good cricket and maybe we haven't quite got what we deserved. But we have one more opportunity to level the series," he said.
West Indies have named an unchanged squad of 13 for the final test and the only selection choice is likely to be whether to stick with Ryan Hinds or give batsman Lendl Simmons his debut test on his home ground.
Strauss, without injured allrounder Andrew Flintoff and with a bowling attack that has yet to really fire, has some tougher choices to make.
Seamer Steve Harmison, dropped for the fourth test, is hoping for a recall, left-armer Ryan Sidebottom's place is under-threat and Danish-born Amjad Khan, flown in as cover for Flintoff, might also be a consideration.
Strauss said England could well opt for five frontline bowlers at the Queen's Park Oval.
"It's certainly one of the options that we've got. It's very clear that we need to take 20 wickets so that's definitely going to be an option we'll consider," he said.
The last time West Indies won a test series of any kind was against Bangladesh in 2004, a year after their last victory over an established test nation - Sri Lanka.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
