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Aggressive batting has been the hallmark of the West Indies in this Championship. It was proved once again as they marched on to the semi-finals with a thrilling 5 wicket victory over hosts England.

Asked to score 80 runs in 9 overs following the Duckworth-Lewis Method after the match was curtailed due to rains, West Indies was reeling at 45 for 5 due to some hostile bowling by the English fast bowlers. But Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul plundered 37 runs in little under 4 overs to establish their authority of being the best chasers in this Championship. Before them, it was Dwayne Bravo who showed the way with another quickfire innings of 18 runs off 13 balls. After Bravo departed, Sarwan and Chanderpaul didn’t let panic set in as they calmly played the English bowlers with crisp proper cricket shots to partner 37 runs in 22 balls and sealed the victory. Sarwan was judged ‘Man of the Match’ for a brisk knock (19 runs in 9 balls and Batting Momentum or BM of 40).

Earlier, in the absence of Fidel Edwards, Chris Gayle relied on his medium pacers Darrren Sammy and Kieron Pollard to provide early breakthroughs for West Indies. Luke Wright continued his wretched form to perish in the 2nd over bowled by Pollard. Ravi Bopara and Kevin Pietersen rebuilt the innings for England with a partnership of 56 runs in 38 balls. Bopara scored 55 runs from 47 balls to accelerate England’s Batting Momentum (BM). During the death overs, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann enabled England pose a modest total of 161 runs by scoring 23 runs in the last two overs.