Hussain: West Indies Impressed But Strauss Remained in Control
Nasser Hussain has praised England captain Andrew Strauss after his side closed in on a series victory against the West Indies at Trent Bridge.
England's bowlers demolished the West Indies' top order in the late Sunday sunshine as the tourists were reduced to 61-6 in their second innings after England were bowled out for 428.
Stuart Broad claimed the key wicket of Shivnarine Chanderpaul for 11 after James Anderson had bowled Kieran Powell and had Adrian Barath trapped lbw. And Tim Bresnan wrapped up an encouraging day's play for the hosts when he caught Darren Bravo, Denesh Ramdin and Kirk Edwards lbw to leave the West Indies needing a miracle on Monday morning to rescue the match.
On a pitch showing little signs of uneven bounce after three days of relentless sun, the West Indies would have been happy to claim England's remaining eight wickets for 169 runs after Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen began the day on 102 and 72 respectively.
"Everybody turned up on Sunday expecting England to bat all day and pile up 500, maybe even 600, on what is still the flattest of Trent Bridge pitches in perfect conditions," Hussain told the Daily Mail.
"I was very impressed by West Indies in the field. They had a difficult day on Saturday but came back strongly when they could have wilted yesterday morning when faced with Strauss unbeaten on a hundred overnight and Kevin Pietersen in full flow.
"This was a case of England batsmen being outthought and effectively bored out at times by West Indies as there was still precious little sideways movement before Andrew Strauss then posted sweepers to help keep control even when England were attacking so effectively with the new ball last night."
And England seized the initiative early in the West Indies' second innings as Anderson removed both Barath and Powell to bring Chanderpaul to the crease with the new ball still fresh.
The home side have struggled to dismiss the West Indies' No.4 in this series but Broad and Anderson targeted his weakness down the leg side when playing himself in and got their reward when Broad tempted Chanderpaul into a rash pull shot that fell into the welcoming hands of Jonathan Trott on the third-man boundary.
"England have thought long and hard about how to dismiss Shiv Chanderpaul but no seamer had managed to do it in this series before Sunday when Broad and Strauss came up with a plan," said Hussain.
"They must have sensed that Chanderpaul had decided to go for his shots and Broad had a long discussion with his captain before posting a leg gully and two other fielders on the leg side.
"The world's No 1 ranked batsman must have thought that the ball was going to be full and straight, as opposed to Anderson's plan of attacking him outside off stump, but Broad double-bluffed him and sent down a bouncer.
"Chanderpaul was never totally in control of the resulting pull and hit it straight down Jonathan Trott's throat at long leg before Broad followed that up with a series of full balls to Marlon Samuels that, with his lack of footwork, he could easily have nicked. Clever bowling from a man with a fantastic cricket brain. "
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