Cricket: England's victory stroll

England Under-19 561 and 61-1

West Indies Under-19 365 and 256

England win by 9 wickets

ENGLAND may have packed this one away in the bag with room to spare, to go one up with one to play in the three-match series, but there is strong evidence to suggest that should any of their young hopefuls go on to achieve full Test status they will probably be seeing an awful lot more of Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

They might argue, of course, that they have seen enough of him already. In the first of these Tests at Trent Bridge the West Indian left-hander made a seven-hour unbeaten double century before the wash-out, an unbeaten 153 against an English Development XI at Oundle on the way to this match and another 91 yesterday to keep England waiting.

Chanderpaul can only weigh about nine stone wringing wet, but he had England sweating again in his 163-minute stay during which he weighed in with 13 boundaries. England's seniors, meanwhile, should get a first sighting of him in the West Indies this winter.

The Guyanese has already taken a century off Trinidad and Tobago in the Red Stripe competition and, made 140 not out for the West Indies Board XI against Pakistan, last winter's tourists to the Caribbean. In the circumstances, young England were mighty thankful that they removed him for 22 first time around here.

Matthew Dowman, meanwhile, had provided the perfect answer to Chanderpaul's exploits with a majestic 267 to help provide England with their match-winning total. The Nottinghamshire left-hander, though, was not so fortunate when it came to knocking off the 61 needed for victory as he fell to a stunning one-handed catch in the gully by Mario Ventura for three.

Still, all the hard work had been done by then after the follow-on had been enforced and most of it yesterday centred on removing Chanderpaul. This was finally managed by the slow, left-armer, Gary Keedy. Chanderpaul had just helped to raise 83 for the eighth wicket with Andre Coley when, pushing forward, he edged one behind.

Keedy's fourth wicket thus ended the resistance and while Dowman's departure prompted some on-field enthusiasm, England had a straightforward stroll to the line. It was a pity there were not a few more present to witness England's first win over the West Indies at this level in 15 years.