England collapse again

12 April 2012

England suffered a new low on their troubled tour of the Caribbean, dismissed for just 117 in the third one-day international in Barbados.

Already humiliated by being dismissed for 51 in the first Test at Jamaica and losing a Test series they were expected to win comfortably, the tourists were bowled out in 41.3 overs of an innings reduced to 44 because of rain at the Kensington Oval.

Their inept batting display at least scraped above their worst-ever 86 all out in a day-night international against Australia at Old Trafford in 2001 - and their previous lowest against West Indies of 114 on the same ground in 1986.

Captain Andrew Strauss and Ravi Bopara became frustrated and fell attempting to force the pace against Fidel Edwards, Strauss looping the ball in the air with an attempted pull to allow Chris Gayle to run back from slip and take the catch and Bopara mistiming a pull to mid-on.

The manner of their dismissals set a trend among England's top order - with Kevin Pietersen hooking Dwayne Bravo's first delivery straight to deep midwicket.

Owais Shah at least displayed some defiance and hit three boundaries, including driving Edwards back over his head for four - before tamely providing Baker with a wicket by picking out point.

Andrew Flintoff became the second of four victims for Bravo when he hooked straight to fine-leg for a duck, and the West Indies all-rounder completed the top-order elimination by winning an lbw appeal against Paul Collingwood.

The tourists were looking increasingly rattled, and all-rounder Kieron Pollard claimed two wickets in an over - Matt Prior cracking a short delivery straight to backward-point and Stuart Broad following two balls later when he edged a full-length delivery behind.

But then Dimitri Mascarenhas and Gareth Batty combined in a determined 48-run partnership. Batty then fell just eight deliveries into the final powerplay when he miscued an attempted drive off Bravo and was caught at backward-point.

Desperate to take advantage of the remaining overs of the power play, Mascarenhas swung at Edwards in the next over and was caught by Bravo at midwicket to condemn England to the 15th-lowest total in their one-day history.

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