Date-stamped : 28 Aug95 - 22:28 England v West Indies, Test 6 The Oval, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 August 1995 ====> Day 1, 24 Aug 95 Hick in line of fire again - Christopher Martin-Jenkins PATIENT, fast and determined bowling, sure catching, and groundfielding which restricted England to 26 fours on what, despite its ridges, is a quickish outfield, enabled the West In- dies to keep themselves in the deciding Test at the Oval yester- day with a better than even chance of winning. Despite England`s fortune with the toss for the fourth time in the series, their overnight position of 233 for five is relative- ly weaker than it was after the first day at Trent Bridge in the last Test. On the second day a fortnight ago a hundred by Graeme Hick and a total of 440 amounted to virtual insurance against defeat. This morning, on an equally true but livelier pitch, Hick is 43 not out, but the second new ball is only five overs old and 400 still seems a long way off. After Curtly Ambrose had dismissed Graham Thorpe for 74 - his fifth fifty of the series - and turned Alan Wells` moment of des- tiny after his long wait for a Test innings into deepest bathos by dismissing him first ball, Hick counter-attacked handsomely on a grey evening. It was a suitably challenging and dramatic ending to a constantly tense and hard fought day`s cricket. Hick hit Carl Hooper, treated until then like a piece of fragile Meissen porcelain, out of the attack and is 43 not out with seven fours so far. As at Nottingham, so here, much will depend on whether he gets going again today and on the ability of Russell, Watkinson and Cork to stay with him. The alternative possibility is a rapid demolition of the tail and a tour de force by Brian Lara. If he had known for sure that he would win the toss Michael Ath- erton, the England captain, might have been prepared to gamble on leaving out John Crawley from his final eleven. Instead it was Phil Tufnell who returned to county cricket along with Mark Ilott from the original squad of 13. Crawley, coming in at No 3 in the third over of the day, rewarded the selectors by playing a valu- able part in a third-wicket partnership of 89 with Thorpe. Crawley`s 50 could not quite be said to have established his fu- ture Crawley`s 50 could not quite be said to have established his fu- ture but his defence was impressively solid and it can only have been mental relaxation which spoiled his hard work when he drove loosely at his first ball of the evening session and was well caught at extra cover off Hooper, whose first 14 overs cost only 17 runs. Tufnell`s omission was a surprise but, seeing the bounce in the pitch, England will be relieved to have Devon Malcolm in their team, so long as he bowls straight. The question remains, howev- er, whether they should have gone for broke and chosen Tufnell too on a pitch which looks so dry that it must surely turn for someone by the fifth day. It is an extraordinary fact that after Wells`s personal debacle yesterday the four batsmen chosen during this series to bolster the batting at No 6 - Ramprakash, Gallian, White and Wells -have between them mustered 55 runs in 11 innings. The West Indies bowled fast and, though the pitch is not as quick as many an Oval surface, they occasionally extracted some nasty bounce. Their fielding was sharp from the outset and so, by re- cent standards, was their over-rate. They left themselves only 32 overs for the final session and were rewarded with three wickets. The accumulated fines of $US27,000 (about #18,000) for failing to keep up with the required 90 overs a day in three of the first four Tests (they were deemed not guilty at Trent Bridge) has fi- nally had a galvanising effect. Even before Hooper bowled yester- day they managed 28 overs before lunch, despite two wickets and a drinks break. Courtney Walsh, as usual, carried his fair share of the burden, but he has yet to take his elusive 300th Test wicket and ap- parently incurred the displeasure of V.K. Ramaswamy, the experienced Indian umpire standing in his first Test in England, when he received an unofficial warning for intimidatory bowling against Crawley. The short ball was liberally, but not excessively used. Ambrose sounded an early warning when his second ball of the day lifted and cut sharply back at Atherton, hitting him high in the ribs. Jason Gallian survived a very close lbw call from Walsh in the second over, but was caught at first slip driving at Ambrose in the third, Hooper clutching on with both hands despite the wick- etkeeper diving straight in front of him. It was a sad return for Gallian It was a sad return for Gallian, one of three Lancastrians lead- ing the batting order: the first time a county has had the top three since Stewart, Edrich and Barrington represented Surrey in 1963. Crawley filled the breach, but it was Atherton who made the early pace, punching strokes into the wide gaps created by Richie Richardson`s uncompromising emphasis on attack. Atherton had just hit his firmest stroke of the morning, a drive past cover from a wide half-volley, when Kenny Benjamin`s vi- gorous body-action got a ball to bounce and Stuart Williams, pre- ferred to Keith Arthurton in the West Indies team, clasped a high catch at second slip. It was the last West Indies success for more than two hours. Thorpe, judging when to play and when to attack without flaw, played another priceless innings, never letting the bowlers dic- tate terms and driving crisply. His air of authority allowed Crawley to go at his own steady pace, seldom on top but equally seldom hurried for pace. He was 25 not out at lunch and had reached his third Test fifty by tea, only to succumb immediately afterwards. Hick at first was all passive defence, but when Thorpe, having hit nine fours, finally misjudged the angle and got a thin out- side edge, and Wells turned his first ball off his chest to short-leg, Hick responded by playing his natural game. The dogs of war will be slipping themselves again this morning and what transpires could decide the series. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) ====> Day 1, more Thorpe takes it on the chin - Peter Deeley COURTNEY WALSH appeared to receive an unofficial reprimand from Indian umpire V. K. Ramaswamy at the Oval yesterday for too many short-pitched balls in an over - but England`s Graham Thorpe ex- onerated him later, saying: "I didn`t think West Indies overdid the bouncers. "They are a relentless, world-class attack and I thought on a good batting pitch they contained us well." Thorpe, who scored his fifth half-century this series, added: "They only have to produce one good ball: you make one mistake and that is it." Asked if he supported the suggestion from Test umpires that the two-bouncers-per-over limit should be abloished, the Surrey left-hander said: "It doesn`t worry me. The umpires are there and have to do the job as they see fit." Thorpe ruled out a lack of concentration as the flaw which so often prevents him going on to a Test century. "You can`t afford to lose concentration against these bowlers. They will just try to wear you down. "You try to do your best. If you can look at yourself in the mir- ror and say you have done just that, then I think you can`t ask for more." After umpire Ramaswamy had spoken to Walsh he called over to West Indies captain Richie Richardson, then consulted with fellow um- pire David Shepherd and talked with match officials in the pavi- lion on his walkie-talkie. But a Test and County Cricket Board spokesman said: "It was not an official warning, just a little word in the bowler`s ear. There are official procedures to be gone through if it is a warn- ing. Umpires have to bring the captain over to issue one. It was not done in this case." Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com) ====> Day 2, 25 Aug 95 England in a winning mood due to Hick`s inspiration By Christopher Martin-Jenkins A GROIN injury suffered by Dominic Cork while he was batting was the only cloud on England`s horizon last night; superb fast bowl- ing by Curtly Ambrose the only patch of blue in a brooding West Indian sky. An inspirational partnership of 144 for the sixth wicket between Jack Russell and Graeme Hick, both of whom deserved a hundred but narrowly missed one, set up a position from which England could win and certainly should not lose. To start in the field without one of only four specialist bowlers, however - and that a man who has taken 23 wickets at 22 so far in his first Test series - was a reverse which England had not anticipated when they went into tea with an imposing total of 419 for eight against a tired and dispirited opposition. Five technical chances, only one of them easy, had been grassed by the West Indies and only Ambrose`s sixth five-wicket haul against England rubbed any balm into their wounds. Even that consolation was reduced when John Reid, the referee, called a hearing at the end of the day to examine the moment when Ambrose failed to get out of the way of the batsman, Cork, as he ran towards his end. Convention, though not the law, requires a bowler not to block the way of a batsman, but Cork had to run round his formidable rival, who also made what looked to some, including, initially, Reid, unnecessary physical contact with the batsman. Ambrose, however, was exonerated. Things had already changed, to some extent, for the better in the final hour of the day for the West Indies. Even without Cork, they faced a potentially dangerous 13 overs - for various rea- sons, only 82 were bowled during the day - but though they lost a wicket, they scored at four an over and Ladbrokes, the first bookmakers to quote, now make a draw a heavy odds-on favourite. Five carefree fours were laced into various parts of the off side by Stuart Williams from Devon Malcolm`s first nine balls. Thereafter, Malcolm kept to a rather straighter line and had his reward when Williams, trying to withdraw the bat 10 minutes be- fore the close, was given out caught behind by umpire Ramaswami as the ball apparently brushed glove and shoulder on the way to Russell. From the moment they lost the toss, the West Indies have not en- joyed much luck, though they did not make much for themselves yesterday. Their fielding was shoddy, both on the ground and in the air; Richie Richardson`s captaincy was that of a listless man who had run out of ideas and was prepared to accept that he would lose his job. Only Ambrose, Kenny Benjamin and, within his limi- tations, Carl Hooper, bowled worthily. Ian Bishop, who start- ed the season so well, bowled a ragged line and seldom the right length. It is Russell`s unorthodoxy which makes it so easy to underesti- mate him The bookies might not be quite so keen to offer odds of 100-30 against an England win if the injury to Cork turns out to be less severe than it looked. It was apparently sustained as he ran between the wickets and he had to call for Alan Wells as a runner. He did not immediately take the field when the West In- dies batted but limped on in time to be available to bowl this morning. The first two hours will be important but not so decisive as those yesterday when Hick and Russell continued the partnership which ensured an England total worthy of the pitch, and of their own abilities. The outfield had quickened and the boundaries multiplied as Hick drove with great authority and Russell pulled, cut and, above all, clipped the half-volleys with marvellous tim- ing. It is Russell`s unorthodoxy which makes it so easy to underesti- mate him. This was his eighth fifty in 14 matches this season. His career average is pushing 30 in first-class cricket. He is not half so pretty a player to watch as J T Murray, but that elegant driver had a Test average of 22; Russell`s is 27 and this was his second Test ninety in addition to his hundred against Australia at Old Trafford in 1989. Even Jim Parks and Alan Knott only averaged 32. Benjamin had unaccountably been the fifth bowler called on The command with which Russell and Hick eventually played might never have been established. Hick only just got through a hostile early over from Courtney Walsh, during which a ball lobbed off the splice without carrying to a fielder and he turned a ball off the face into Sherwin Campbell`s shin at short-leg. Much the more serious chance, however, was Russell`s off Benjamin when he had made 42 and mis-hit one of his favourite short-arm pulls to Shivnarine Chanderpaul at square leg. The fleet-footed Guyanese had fielded superbly throughout but he now dropped a dolly. Benjamin had unaccountably been the fifth bowler called on, fol- lowing seven innocuous overs from Hooper. Denied Russell`s wicket at 322, Benjamin instead got a ball to bounce and clip the edge of Hick`s bat when he was four short of the fourth Test century which his bold batting the previous evening and accomplished all-round strokeplay yesterday had deserved. Mike Watkinson stayed long enough only to suggest that he has no right to go in ahead of Cork. He survived three possible chances before finally presenting Walsh with his 300th Test wicket as he tried to withdraw his bat from a bouncer. Cork, however, batted well until he pulled his muscle, soon after Russell had lost his off stump going back to a good-length ball from the consistently accurate Ambrose. Cork, badly restricted by his injury, succumbed to a leg-stump yorker but even Malcolm middled a few before the innings conclud- ed. He will need to be both fast and straight today, and Cork will surely have to have made a rapid recovery if the bookies are to be confounded. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@*ogi.edu) ====> Day 3, 26 Aug 95 Lara invades safe haven Scyld Berry sees a Bradmanesque display of scintillating stroke play turn the Oval decider on its head THERE was complacent English talk of a draw at the day`s start, and of a series honourably shared. By day`s end, a horrible abyss had opened up in front of England`s cricketers, into which their mighty efforts of the last three months are liable to disappear. In between times West Indies scored 374 as only West Indians can in their Caribbean style, for all the efficiency of the new Aus- tralians. They scored faster than a run a minute. They scored faster than England could have ever feared. Off his own bat Brian Lara hit 179 at not far short of one run a ball, before losing his balance and hitting a catch to mid-off. In the course of his innings he boosted his aggregate to 765, the fourth highest in any series in England. It was history in the hay-making. By managing to score a boundary every other over he was at the wicket, Lara brought the game back up with the clock. Now England will have to bat for a day, in the knowledge that their gains of this summer could be wiped out by the West Indian fast bowlers in one last burn. With the omniscience of hindsight, some might say that Phil Tuf- nell should have played as a fifth bowler, pitching into the footmarks from over the wicket if all else failed, to keep some control. But before this series is done, England may be grateful to have Alan Wells to bat - and it should be admitted that perhaps no mortal agency with a ball could have troubled Lara any more than Devon Malcolm did. Of Test batsmen in the last half-century, only Lara, and Viv Richards in his fiery youth, can be directly compared to Don Bradman (only Bradman in 1930, Mark Taylor in 1989 and Richards in 1976 have made more runs in a series here). This summer the comparison has extended to a slow start, due to the nervous ex- haustion brought about by superstar fame, such as Bradman went through in 1934, before recovering. What would England not have given for the faintest touch when Lara square-cut underneath his first ball from Dominic Cork It was at Old Trafford that Lara ceased to be dormant, and rediscovered his discrimination in deciding which balls to leave and which to dispatch. He hit 87 and 145 there, followed with 152 and 20 at Trent Bridge, so this was his third major hundred in as many Tests. Like a good janitor sweeping the steps in preparation for royal- ty, Kenny Benjamin hung around until 12.10 to take some of Malcolm`s morning sting (he could have been caught by first or second slip in the day`s second over). Sherwin Campbell made an exemplary footman too, discreet and watchful for his lord. He - HE - arrived bearing the imperial purple, if only on the glitzy new label of his bat. What would England not have given for the faintest touch when Lara square-cut underneath his first ball from Dominic Cork. He misses his cut sometimes, as humans do, but never seems to top-edge. Lara`s power, so the sports scientists say, derives not from his wrists, but from the muscles of his sides and back. Added to a backswing and follow through of majestic sweep, he makes the bat whip through its intended arc. Not until his third ball did Lara hit the first of his 26 fours, square-cutting Angus Fraser to his frustration, but thereafter England did not bowl as short and wide as they had at Trent Bridge. On unblemished turf, Australian in its unyieldingness, there was little bowlers could do, the spinners having even less margin for error than the seamers. Soon England`s cupboard was laid bare. Fraser kept going through first ball and second, but he could have done with a rest after Trent Bridge, not another crucial championship match. Mike Wat- kinson, on top of England`s bowling and batting averages, had no- where to go but down. Jason Gallian`s medium-pace tended to bring the best out of England`s fielders, and finally out of Lara too, when the master`s pull-drive landed him for four and six consecutively. If he is different from Bradman it is that Lara averages 100 runs per Test match - he has 3,048 in his 31st Test - where Bradman almost averaged 100 per Test innings. Cork, too, has come down on the hard earth of the Oval but his spirit was not broken. Yesterday he had a viral infection to add to his groin strain, and he still battled on, irritating the op- position with his persistent aggression, and the visiting umpire with his persistent transgression on to the pitch, which resulted in two official warnings. So it was up to Malcolm to ruffle the gorgeous plumage, and he did so as best he could So it was up to Malcolm to ruffle the gorgeous plumage, and he did so as best he could. A couple of Lara`s hooks flew over the `keeper, a yorker was barely exhumed. Once Lara pushed to mid-off and hastily ran, and would have been run out for 30 if Watkinson`s throw had been inches straighter. Only when they play against South Africa, and Allan Donald, do West Indians see such speed, now their own fast bowlers are over-taxed. Campbell looks fated not to reach a Test hundred, yet he is still the find of the West Indians` tour. Richie Richardson was not cowed by thought of the retribution that might follow a series defeat by England: he remains his own gentle man, accepting alike a blow by fate or a short ball from Fraser to pull for six. West Indies scored 103 runs in the morning, 116 more in the afternoon. In the final session, of 32 overs, they kept going at more than four an over and piled up 145, when more cautious coun- tries might have reined in and played for the morrow. For all the benignity of the pitch thus far, real danger awaits England now. Carl Hooper was missed by Malcolm off a caught-and- bowled chance with the second ball, and along with Richardson and Chanderpaul he remains among the specialist batsmen to dismiss. The initiative in a Test series is akin to possession of the ball under rugby`s new laws: use it or lose it. In the last Test at Trent Bridge England were given the upper hand, batting first on a bland track, but they could not quite use it to the full. Yes- terday West Indies took the initiative back, and to save their reputations they are all too likely to use it. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@*ogi.edu) ====> Day 4, 27 Aug 95 West Indies brilliance forces English backs to the wall By Christopher Martin-Jenkins Fourth day of five: England (454 & 39-0) trail West Indies (692-8 dec) by 197 runs WHO could have predicted last Friday night, when England had scored 454 and taken a West Indian wicket, that two days and six sessions later they would be 500 to one against to win the sixth Test? That is what can happen when the best player of his gen- eration and one of the greatest of an era is determined to make a big score on a perfect pitch for batting. It was Brian Lara`s scintillating batting on Saturday which transformed the game and created the chance for the other batsmen to build the highest West Indian total in England and, just pos- sibly, for the fast bowlers to finish the job today. The speed and dazzling mastery with which Lara scored his 179 - a mere 196 fewer than his highest Test score - sapped the spirit of every England bowler except the irrepressible Dominic Cork and enabled Richie Richardson, Carl Hooper and Shivnarine Chanderpaul to indulge themselves in turn. When Richardson made a perfectly timed declaration 40 minutes after tea yesterday, the West Indies lead was 238 and they had compiled the 10th highest Test total. Exactly half of them have been scored at the Oval. Four of the 43 individual Test scores of 250 or more have been scored here too, and goodness knows how much bigger the lead, or how much earlier the declaration, would have been, if Lara had not hit Devon Malcolm to mid-off 45 minutes before the close of the third day. When the sun shines here in August, and the pitches are pacey but not lightning fast, it is a beautiful place to bat When the sun shines here in August, and the pitches are pacey but not lightning fast, it is a beautiful place to bat once anyone gets a start. Paul Brind has produced a surface much like the one his father prepared in 1987, when England drew despite a Pakistan total of 708. I dare say it was not so very different in 1938, when Len Hutton made 364 and England 903 for seven declared. With all this history behind them; with six specialist batsman picked by cautious selectors partly to guard against just this sort of challenge; with Kenny Benjamin unlikely to be able to bowl at his best today because of a back strain which kept him off the field yesterday evening; and, not least, with a solid start to their second innings already made; England should sur- vive the final day of the series today. There are bound to be anxious moments, however, before the draw, which has looked likely since Graeme Hick and Jack Russell made sure of a decent first-innings total on the second morning, is completed. England are still 199 runs behind and the West Indies fast bowlers know that with one great last effort they could turn a difficult tour into a final triumph. They added a further 268 at a run-a-minute yesterday, 196 of them in a felicitous sixth- wicket stand for the visitors from Hooper and Chanderpaul. Hooper has had his ups and downs since getting out to the first ball faced by a West Indian batsman in this series at Headingley, but his fifth Test hundred removes any doubt about his remaining an integral member of the team and probably puts paid, too, to his experimental period as an opener. Dropped when he had scored only one by Malcolm off his own bowl- ing on Saturday evening, Hooper got his head down from the outset yesterday and did not lift it until he threw caution to the winds as the declaration approached. He lost his captain in the third over of the day when Richardson, greatly deserving a hundred after supporting Lara ideally in a fourth-wicket stand of 188, cut hard at a ball which came back sufficiently to cramp him and was expertly caught in the gully. It had been an innings of character by Richardson but the jury will still be out in the Caribbean unless he guides his team to a win today. Chanderpaul confirmed the impression of class given during his first few Tests against England Cork, the lucky bowler, though he tended to bowl too short, had already shown his resilience by bowling with his usual vibrancy on Saturday despite his groin strain. He showed no sign of it yesterday and with all sting in the faithful Fraser drawn by the excellence of the pitch, Cork and Malcolm were throughout the only bowlers who looked likely to make a strike. Mike Watkinson only once beat anyone through the air and never genuinely managed it off the pitch. No doubt Phil Tufnell would have been more economical, but he would not, surely, have bowled the West Indies out on this pitch. Chanderpaul confirmed the impression of class given during his first few Tests against England and only twice did he falter on the way to his seventh fifty in 13 Test innings so far for the West Indies. Having calmly ducked Malcolm`s first bouncer, hooked the next for four and reached 17, he snicked him in the air between first and second slips, Thorpe and Hick. Neither Thorpe nor Hick got a hand to the ball, an exact repeat of what had happened to Benjamin off Malcolm 24 hours earlier. If Malcolm had been blessed in his 34 Tests with infallible slip catchers he might by now have had 136 Test wickets, not 116. He bowled fast and, generally, straight but his length was seldom quite right in his second match of the series. Chanderpaul was 37 and the total 507 when he went down the pitch to Watkinson and would have been stumped had the ball not bounced out of rough as high as Jack Russell`s left ear. Even so, the de- cision was close enough to be referred to John Hampshire, the third umpire. It was a rare moment of discomfort for a young man who is formidably good for one aged 21. Like Hooper, Chanderpaul has ample time against the quick bowlers. Hooper, it is true, was struck on the helmet by a short ball from Malcolm, his one anxious moment on the way to his first hundred in 13 Tests. The straight drive for six off Fraser, hit with languid ease on the up, was the shot of the day, and of a batsman who should be averaging for his country 45, not 31. At last England claimed them both, Chanderpaul driving Cork to extra cover and Hooper falling to an outside edge to the last ball before tea and a low catch by Russell which umpire V K Ramaswamy at first gave not out. The lead was extended to 238 as England slowed the over rate even further after tea and the de- claration left them 19 overs to bat on a dark final session of the day. Encouragingly little got past the bat, however, as Jason Gallian played with commendable calm and a straight bat to see things through with his captain in an unbeaten stand of 39 for England. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@*ogi.edu) ====> Day 5, 28 Aug 95 Atherton shepherds England to safety with six-hour vigil By Christopher Martin-Jenkins CALM of mind, all passion spent, Mike Atherton looked back with satisfaction on a vivid, intense and enthralling Test series yes- terday evening after personally making sure that it would be drawn. He had batted for just under six hours for 95, and when he wearily left the field, brilliantly caught down the leg side to give Ian Bishop his first wicket of the match, he could be virtu- ally certain that the sixth Test had been saved. Although Eng- land were still 15 runs behind, the match duly concluded nine overs later in a draw. Relieved that a happy series had ended honourably, Atherton had to accept a black mark from the referee when he and his players were fined 20 per cent of their match fees for bowling four overs fewer than they should have done. They had been fined 15 per cent at Lord`s and five per cent at Edgbaston, but this compared with levies of 30, 25 and 30 per cent on the West Indies after the first, third and fourth Tests. This will be a bone for fierce contention, no doubt, when the Test captains meet the International Cricket Council before the World Cup next February, but the administrators are right not to allow the game to become the preserve of fast bowlers taking their time. A draw was not finally conceded by the West Indies until they had taken the second new ball but by then their three fast bowlers were tired. Curtly Ambrose, indeed, walked off before the end, his arms aloft as if to say farewell not just to a last-day crowd of 6,000 but also to Test cricket in England. He had bowled another superb spell in the morning, finding Jason Gallian`s out- side edge after a determined and correct innings of just under two hours and then producing another beauty to bounce and leave John Crawley. Had Kenny Benjamin been on the field - his back in- jury kept him off throughout the innings - England would have been still more sorely pressed. Graeme Hick made an uncomfortable start to what became another assured innings on his favourite Test pitch As it was, Atherton batted on with dedication on a pitch which might have lasted five more days and Graham Thorpe stayed with him for 93 minutes to become the first England batsman to make more than 500 runs in a home series against the West Indies. When Walsh removed him with yet another of Stuart Williams`s div- ing slip catches England were still 106 runs behind with another 52 overs left. Graeme Hick made an uncomfortable start to what became another assured innings on his favourite Test pitch, but he soon settled and Atherton`s untimely fall five short of a century allowed Alan Wells to get off the mark in Test cricket, albeit in what was a `no win` situation. Atherton had hoped, of course, that England would win this match and the series, but for his side to have won twice and compete on even terms has represented a genuine step forward. Despite hav- ing to use 21 players, partly because of injuries, they played as a team in every game after sacrificing the first Test at Head- ingley with some reckless cricket. Atherton may feel justi- fied pride that he was chosen by Wes Hall, ahead of Dominic Cork and Thorpe, as England`s Cornhill Player of the Series. Among the reasons given were his "perennial unflappability" and his "seemingly good humour and quiet dignity" which, said the West Indies manager, held his side together and fostered "a spir- it of conviviality between the teams". Amen to that, and the same, happily, may be said of Richie Richardson, whatever the doubts about his tactical acumen. It has been fashionable, incidentally, to complain of the lack of a West Indian atmosphere on the Test grounds this summer. It is regrettable, certainly, if tickets are getting too expensive for those living here to book in advance, and also if over- officious stewards have stopped innocent humourists from having their say. We should rejoice, however, if mindless chanting and constant noise have successfully been discouraged, whether they come from English yobs or tuneless bands. England have employed 21 players in the six Tests of this summer. They must be content with only 16 for the tour of South Africa which starts in the middle of October. The balance will be eight batsmen, three of them openers, a wicketkeeper, five fast bowlers and two spinners. There is one week more for the hopefuls to con- vince the selection committee before they meet next Monday and some hard decisions. Perhaps only Atherton, Thorpe, Hick, Stewart, Smith, Russell, Cork and Fraser can be absolutely sure that they will be on the plane on Oct 18. Other places are debat- able, but the South Africans will be delighted if either Malcolm or Gough is left behind. For the West Indies a draw from an unpromising start was a strong and resilient performance. The way they responded on Saturday, making 374 from 90 overs, was reassuring evidence that the glori- ous Caribbean flair for batting is alive and well. Brian Lara, with 765 runs, has put a lean patch in Test cricket firmly behind him and though, oddly, none of his three hundreds has led to a victory, he has adorned the English summer for a second year in succession. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by The Management (help@*ogi.edu)