It was a tiresome series for Flintoff till date as he had to suffer from both injuries and drought of runs to his credit through out the tour. But at the end he has a lot to celebrate and to silent his critics he brought the much needed series win for his side which had also been crawling through bad patches recently, with his stunning figure of 5 for 19 with the ball. Flintoff posed in the middle of the pitch as a triumphant gladiator after fetching the rare glory of an ODI hat-trick and at that time itself he was full of confidence of wrapping the opponents before they could land home with the match and series.

Windies chose to field after a prolonged delay due to rain and their efforts flourished well with Strauss back in the pavilion in the second over it self. Then Pietersen had a whole marathon to prove his commitment to the game over which recently there had been speculations meandering in the air. He, taking the support of Ravi Bopara surged ahead smoothly. The stand brought 80 runs in 14 overs and at a time when Pietersen looked vibrant with 48 runs from that many balls, the decisive happened for the visiting side. Sammy, at backward point dived forward to hold on to the ball coming from Pietersen which but later found to have grassed before he could take it, from the replays. That dismissal onwards the rhythm broke for England and they started to tremble with the slow bowlers of Windies doing the tricks.

Bopara could not last long once his partner departed and with a well earned 44 he walked back with the score on 104. Once again Flintoff had a terrible time with the bat as he found Chanderpaul diving to send him back off Pollard for just 3 runs. With Collingwood and Prior stretching their arms as far as possible with a 60 runs stand in disciplined bowling attire, the total became a fighting one with 172 runs on their board after the close of 29 overs for five wickets.

Windies might have felt the danger earlier in their innings with Gayle returning in the first over itself. Flintoff curbed their chances of revival in his first spell itself by scalping the wickets of both Simmons and Sarwan who were in a bid to repair the situation. Further Bravo and Pollard also failed to turn the heat on as they were out on back to back deliveries after scoring 33 and 30 respectively. Once again it was the turn of Flintoff who ran over the tail end with the historic feat.

It was Ramdin with whom started the show followed by Rampaul being lbw and lastly Benn who could not stop Flintoff en route his hat-trick in the 27th over. There was little charisma left in the match as Sammy walked back as the last man to fall with the score on 146. England bagged the match for a margin of 26 runs and the series 3-2 after being put to back seat in the test series. Flintoff obviously became the man of the match and Strauss, man of the series.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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