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28/06/07 - Cricket section

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Despite skipper's heroics England are Colly wobbled

West Indies 208-8 England 193-7 (West Indies won by 15 runs)

Collingwood said before the match that he expected "mayhem" but surely he could not have expected such a display of cricketing drama and quality strokeplay at The Brit Oval.

New England one-day captain Paul Collingwood hits out in vain

England looked doomed at 101 for six in the 13th over in reply to West Indies' formidable 208 for eight but Collingwood, with 80 from 41 balls, played close to the perfect captain's innings in a partnership of 91 off 43 balls with Mike Yardy before his side fell 15 runs short. They will try again tonight in the second of the two NatWest Twenty20 matches.

The night, however, belonged to the much-derided West Indies.

They may have been a shambles in the Test series and had a bitter dispute with their board in the buildup to last night's game but this was a different West Indian side.

Captain Chris Gayle said: "We knew once we got it right we'd be unbeatable."

He seemed to mean it, too. West Indies have been far better at one-day cricket than in Tests for some time — they won the ICC Champions Trophy on their last appearance on this ground in 2004 — but this was only their second Twenty20 International and they looked novices while succumbing to, of all teams, Derbyshire in a warm-up game earlier this week.

Yet, fromthe moment Gayle elected to take first use of a typically hard and fast Oval pitch, we at last saw West Indies cricket in all its former glory — expansive and at times completely unorthodox strokeplay delivered with a style and panache so Caribbean.

England did not help themselves. They left out Monty Panesar at the home of fellow slow-left armer Nayan Doshi, the most successful bowler in domestic Twenty20 cricket, then seemingly forgot the first rule of bowling in this form of cricket. Keep it full and straight.

England's bowling was far too short for the conditions as they got carried away with their pre-match plan of "being aggressive and hitting the bat". Ryan Sidebottom, Jimmy Anderson, in his first spell, and Stuart Broad all allowed West Indies to indulge in serious hitting, particularly in the contrasting forms of Devon Smith and Marlon Samuels.

Fall-guy: Kevin Pietersen takes a tumble after being run out

Smith was one of the many West Indies batsmen who floundered in the Test series but he got his side off to the best possible start by hitting his first five balls for 22 to give Collingwood the most testing of baptisms in charge. At one point the new captain forgot he needed four men in the fielding circle and cost his side a no ball.

It took newcomer Dimitri Mascarenhas to bring a semblance of control for England. First Smith, with three sixes in his 61, and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, then the colourful Samuels lifted West Indies to within 12 runs of the highest score in the short history of international Twenty20 cricket — Australia's 221 for five against, yes, England at Sydney earlier this year.

Samuels is quite a character. He is a Barbadian of considerable talent who, already in his short career, has been accused of a liaison with a bookmaker, ran out Brian Lara in his farewell match and complained in a letter to his tour manager that he was not being given fair treatment in the nets after arriving in England as a replacement for the injured Ramnaresh Sarwan.

Most bizarrely, he names Nasser Hussain as his all-time hero.

The boy may be eccentric but he can bat, and here he hit 51 off just 26 balls, with four sixes and, quite possibly, the biggest hit this famous old ground has seen, pulling Sidebottom out of the ground and halfway to Kennington tube station.

Samuels acknowledged the blow, with a smile afterwards, as retribution for Sidebottom dismissing him in the fourth Test at Riverside. He said: "When he got me out my friends said I couldn't come home so I had to do something."

Leg before: Kevin Pietersen holds his leg in pain after taking a fall

Only Mascarenhas, with two wickets and two catches, and, to a lesser extent, Yardy could be anything like satisfied with their efforts in the field but Anderson got his length right at the death to stop the West Indian charge, although by then it was too late.

England were always going to be up against it, chasing such a formidable target, and both Alastair Cook, after only two Twenty20 matches for Essex, and Matt Prior failed to strike the right balance between slog making and shot selection as openers.

Jonathan Trott, on debut, missed a straight one from Darren Sammy and when Kevin Pietersen was run out and hurt his right ankle going for a third to Dwayne Smith, West Indies' best bowler, England's goose looked well and truly cooked.

Thanks to Collingwood and Yardy they went close, but Ravi Rampaul and Dwayne Bravo, who was not supposed to be bowling because of an ankle injury, kept their heads when 30 were needed off the last two overs to earn West Indies their first proper win of the tour.

Surely nobody can begrudge them their triumph, least of all Collingwood, who said: "It was a great experience for us all and we weren't too far off winning it. You have to hand it to the West Indies. They haven't played the cricket they would have liked on this tour but they were hard to bowl to tonight."

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