Ravi Bopara guided England to a close win in the second match of the ongoing One Day International series against West Indies. He scored 38 useful runs batting at no. 7 and helped England achieve the target of 160 set up by the opposition.
The surface was very hard for batting in Antigua. The pitch was offering steep bounce and thus, it was a bit awkward to handle the fast bowlers.
The English captain Stuart Broad decided to field first after winning the toss and that was a brave decision because the pitch was only going to deteriorate. So, batting in the second innings was one hell of a task, but, Broad decided to do that.
His idea was to try and bowl the Caribbean team out on a low score and then chase down that total. His bowlers did exactly what he was expecting from them. They kept the deliveries at just back of length and created a lot of problems for the batsmen. The wickets fell regularly and the whole West Indies team was in the pavilion with not even 200 on the board.
However, the kind of pitch it was, the hosts still had the chance of winning the match. They had to take a couple of wickets early though which they got. In fact, they got more than a couple. At one stage, they had had England 105 for 7 and the game was in their pocket, but, that’s when Bopara decided to show his potential.
He grinded his way through along with Stuart Broad and took England home to make sure that the series score becomes 1-1.
Bopara deserved the man of the match award, but, that didn’t go to him. The adjudicators decided to give it to Stephen Parry who was playing his first ODI match.