James Anderson took the best innings figures of his Test career as England completed a nine-wicket and series-clinching victory against West Indies at Lord's on Saturday. Anderson followed up his Friday feat of becoming the first England bowler and only sixth in history to take 500 Test wickets by finishing with a return of seven for 42 in 20.1 overs as West Indies were dismissed for 177 in their second innings on the third day of the third Test. That left England with a meagre target of 107 and they finished on 107 for one off 28 overs as they took a three-match series 2-1. Mark Stoneman was 40 not out and Tom Westley 44 not out in an unbroken stand of 72. Anderson's return just surpassed his previous best in 129 career Tests of seven for 43 against New Zealand at Trent Bridge in 2008.
Lord's was where it all began for James Anderson in Test cricket. He made his debut here against Zimbabwe in 2003 and today, more than fourteen years later, Anderson picked up his 500th Test wicket, becoming just the sixth bowler in Test history to achieve the feat. It had given England the perfect start as they pressed for a series win and their chances were strengthened by the close with Windies 93-3, just 22 runs ahead.
It had been set up perfectly for Anderson. After morning rain, the skies had cleared and the sun had come out after tea as England took to the field with a 71-run lead following their first innings effort of 194 all out. After his two wickets in the first innings, Anderson needed just one more to become the third seam bowler after Australia's Glenn McGrath and Windies' Courtney Walsh to reach the 500 mark and a good sized crowd got behind him from the first ball.
A clinical run-chase from the Trinbago Knight Riders propelled them past Guyana Amazon Warriors and into the 2017 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Final at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad last night. Chasing a competitive score of 159 an 85-run partnership between Colin Munro and Darren Bravo made a difficult chase look easy. The Knight Riders will play St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the Final on Saturday.
The Knight Riders innings got off to a terrible start when Sunil Narine was dismissed first ball – his fourth duck of the season – trapped lbw by an in-swinging yorker from Tanvir. The Knight Riders promoted Hamza Tariq to bat at number three, but he could only manage 10 off 13 before being caught behind off Rayad Emrit. Thanks largely to Munro—who was fortunate to be dropped twice—the Knight Riders reached 42 for 2 after six overs.
After a sedate start, this developed in to a breathless day of Test match cricket. Fourteen wickets fell in all and by the close, with bad light ending play prematurely, England had stuttered to 46 for 4 in response to Windies' 123 all out. Under leaden skies, and with the floodlights on for most of the day, these were not conditions made for batting and the seamers on both sides exploited that to the full. This is still anyone's game. It did not look like that would be the case once the tourists, who had won the toss and decided to bat, were dismissed so cheaply. Ben Stokes took six wickets in a marathon 14.3-over spell during the afternoon as Windies collapsed from 78 for 2, losing their last eight wickets for 45 runs. By the close, they had fought back through an excellent new ball spell from Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel and good back up from captain Jason Holder to keep themselves well in the game.
Rashid and Ronchi eliminate Jamaica Tallawahs A hat-trick from Rashid Khan and a rapid fifty from Luke Ronchi propelled the Guyana Amazon Warriors to victory in the 2017 Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Eliminator against Jamaica Tallawahs at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad , last night . After Rashid’s hat-trick had derailed the Tallawahs innings – restricting them to 168 for 8 – Ronchi blitzed a fifty off just 20 balls to lead the Amazon Warriors chase which was sealed with 11 balls to spare.
Final scores (Guyana Amazon Warriors 169-5 (Ronchi 70, Walton 39, Mahmudullah 3-25) beat Jamaica Tallawahs 168-8 (Sangakkara 57*, Simmons 34, Rashid 3-32) by five wickets). Amazon Warriors opener Sohail Tanvir struggled to time the ball in his brief innings and eventually picked out Rovman Powell in the deep off Krishmar Santokie. However, Chadwick Walton and Ronchi struck regular boundaries in the Powerplay to lift the Amazon Warriors to 53 for 1.
