WOAKES WALLOPS WOEFUL WINDIES
England given a confidence boost
IT IS hardly an exaggeration to say there was more urgency among the West Indies players when a fire alarm caused an evacuation of the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday than at any time in a woefully one-sided contest. Chris Gayle, for one, was forced into his first real exercise of the day in hurriedly leaving the SCG after a World Cup warm-up in which he was dismissed first ball then failed to take the field as England cantered to a nine-wicket win. The emergency turned out to be false, but alarm bells must be ringing for West Indies. This was the first of two practice games which are supposed to prepare England for the challenges ahead. Instead they would have gained little other than a confidence boost. At the centre of the walkover was Chris Woakes, who went wicketless while conceding 89 against Australia last week but bounced back with five wickets as West Indies were bundled out for 122 within 30 overs. Ian Bell then led England home in the company of James Taylor after Moeen Ali, reprieved when caught off a Jason Holder no-ball on seven, had hit 46 off 43 balls. England have won five out of eight matches on this tour but the three defeats have all come against an Australia side who will start as hot favourites for the World Cup, which begins in Melbourne on Saturday. Still, if England continue to dismiss inferior opposition then they can afford to lose at the MCG and still exceed expectations which had them dismissed as no-hopers before they came here. And they will not come much more inferior than West Indies, who did not appear to have any heart for the battle under cloudy skies and with the greentinged pitch offering seam movement and bounce. That was no excuse for some of the pathetic shots played by a team who on days like this are little short of an embarrassment. ‘We don’t want to peak too early,’ said their manager Richie Richardson, and there was certainly no danger of them doing that. ‘But we weren’t happy with that,’ he added. ‘I have no explanation because I didn’t expect it.’ The tone was set when Woakes, who risks losing the new ball to Stuart Broad on Saturday, took two wickets with successive balls in the first over, Gayle and Darren Bravo being undone by extra bounce. Both fell to catches behind the wicket by Jos Buttler, who has emerged as the surprise choice of Eoin Morgan to be his World Cup vice-captain ahead of Broad and Joe Root. From then on West Indies seemed to be competing to get out to the worst shot and the winner was Marlon Samuels, who played all round a straight ball from Steven Finn, who was flattered by his two wickets. Woakes said: ‘It didn’t go to plan for me in Perth but I feel like I’ve been bowling well for a year, so my confidence didn’t take too much of a hit. But you always want to get back in there after a game like that. I feel I’ve been doing the right things, so I won’t be changing.’ England can only hope for a more demanding day when they face Pakistan here tomorrow.