5th Test West Indies vs England Live Streaming
5th Test West Indies vs England Live Streaming
In a week when off-field events have wrenched cricket into the headlines for all the wrong reasons, England’s struggles in the Caribbean have been put into stark context. Nevertheless, they have a series to salvage and one last chance to do so, as the teams move to Trinidad for the fifth and final Test. England entered the series with high hopes of victory, but ever since their humiliating innings defeat in Jamaica last month, they have been playing catch-up to a spirited team of competitors who have found a way to stay one step ahead.
Apart from anything else, England’s ability to take 20 wickets in a Test has become a serious issue, with Andrew Flintoff out injured and Steve Harmison struggling to convince the management that he still has an appetite for the fight. Ryan Sidebottom played at Barbados without ever looking close to full fitness, and while Graeme Swann plugged away diligently for his second five-wicket haul in consecutive Tests, his haul of 5 for 165 was stretched across 50.4 overs - a workload which has not aided the elbow injury with which he has been struggling. Most pertinently of all, England have found no way to dislodge Ramnaresh Sarwan, whose incredible tally of 598 runs for the series includes a best of 291 and a worst of 94.
England (probable) 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Owais Shah, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Ravi Bopara, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Stuart Broad, 9 James Anderson, 10 Graeme Swann, 11 Amjad Khan.
West Indies (probable) 1 Chris Gayle (capt), 2 Devon Smith, 3 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 4 Ryan Hinds, 5 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 6 Brendan Nash, 7 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 8 Jerome Taylor, 9 Lionel Baker, 10 Sulieman Benn, 11 Fidel Edwards.
Pitch and conditions
Antigua was said to be “spicy” and Barbados was meant to be full of pace and bounce. Even if the Queen’s Park Oval is more conducive to a proper contest, it’s unlikely West Indies will object to another featherbed. They have their lead, after all, so why would they risk squandering it? Another factor could be the weather. The equator is close by, and the rains have been heavy in recent weeks.
