Crowd upset by the rain; West Indies v England; Dominic O'Reilly

The rain that has plagued Trinidad all week ended the second one- day international after just 16 overs and has left today's match under threat.

The Queen's Park Oval was packed with fans whose desire to see Brian Lara's first match back on his native Trinidad since his record- breaking 400 not out blinded them to the rain that drenched the outfield and delayed the start by an hour.

The only time they saw the great man was when he called correctly at the toss as he once again dropped himself down the order. It was a surprise when Lara chose to bat first as the pitch had been livened up by the rain and, with the match already reduced to 46 overs a side, it was always going to be an advantage knowing the target.

Steve Harmison took full advantage of the pitch and frequently beat the bat and Shivnarine Chanderpaul began as slowly as he had done in Guyana last week in crawling to three from 16 balls. Unlike that match, he was not able to accelerate as Harmison found his edge in his fourth over to get a deserved reward.

Darren Gough was struggling wth his line and his five overs went for 20 - Michael Vaughan turned to James Anderson for his first international bowl of the tour.

Anderson unveiled another daft haircut, a streaky blond affair that looks like he head-butted a bottle of bleach, but he had relocated his old knack of taking a quick wicket as he struck with his third ball.

It was a fortunate wicket as Chris Gayle cut a wide one without getting on top of the ball and Paul Collingwood at point took a low catch. Anderson looked slightly embarrassed at the fuss that was made of him by his team-mates for he is the baby of the dressing-room and the older players clearly feel protective of him.

Having not played in any of England's Tests on tour, Anderson had expressed his frustration at being overlooked for the first international in Guyana with James Kirtley getting the nod by wondering what he had done wrong.

His rise and fall from Burnley Seconds to World Cup man-of-the- match winner and then to apparently forgotten man within a year is enough to make anyone's head spin let alone a shy 21-year-old but he should get plenty of action now with Andrew Flintoff and Harmison likely to be rested during this series.

Gayle's dismissal stirred up much excitement as the crowd expected Lara to come in next only for Ramnaresh Sarwan to march out to a huge collective sigh of disappointment.

He got off the mark with a boundary first ball, turning a leg stump delivery down to fine leg, but Anderson could have had him with the final delivery of the over with a short delivery outside off stump that found extra bounce. It was an over that sums up Anderson, jaffas mixed with boundary balls.

His inclusion was the only change from the first match that England were extremely fortunate to win thanks to their obsession with bits and pieces players. With Flintoff as a genuine all-rounder there seems no point in having both Ian Blackwell and Rikki Clarke in the side.

Blackwell's blacksmith hitting won back the initiative in Guyana but his left-arm spin was ignored despite Vaughan using seven bowlers.

Better to have a specialist bowler like Anderson who takes wickets rather than players who are all-round in that they won't win a match with either bat or ball.

Copyright 2004 SMG Sunday Newspapers Ltd.
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