Strauss just grateful for a win

21 March 2009

Stuart Broad celebrates the wicket that caused the Duckworth/Lewis confusion

Andrew Strauss admitted England's bizarre victory was "desperately needed" after they claimed an unexpected one-run triumph over West Indies in the opening one-day international.

The tourists, without a win in 13 international matches this winter, were stunned to witness West Indies walk off the pitch for bad light, trailing by one run on the Duckworth/Lewis method with 3.4 overs remaining.

Darren Sammy and Nikita Miller had been given the signal by Windies coach John Dyson, who believed at 244 for seven, chasing England's 270 for seven, they were ahead and they would have won the game.

But moments later it became clear that Dyson had mis-read the D/L tables and effectively handed the game to the tourists.

It was not the circumstances captain Strauss would have chosen to end their long wait for a victory, but he admitted he would gladly take the triumph - their first since beating South Africa in an ODI at the Brit Oval last August.

"We've been working really hard for the last few weeks, starting with the last three Tests and after the Twenty20 defeat the guys have been putting it in really hard," said Strauss.

"That's quite dispiriting if you don't get anything to show from the hard work or any reward for it so a win was desperately needed - you don't expect to win in that fashion, but we'll take a win."

England effectively sealed their triumph with Stuart Broad winning an lbw appeal against Denesh Ramdin from what proved to be the final ball of the match. It put the tourists back in front in the D/L tables, which calculate the results in shortened matches.

Strauss had some sympathy for Dyson's mistake.

"To be fair having not captained in a one-day game for a while it took me a little bit of time to get my head around what the tables were saying.

"They are easy to mis-read and certainly when you've got to factor in the number of wickets lost and the ball of the over it is, you need to make sure you're reading it correctly.

Chris Gayle (right) said West Indies had forgiven coach John Dyson for his run-rate miscalculation

"It's very easy to make mistakes but at the same time they've been around for a long time now and you shouldn't make mistakes at this level because it can cost you."

West Indies captain Chris Gayle said his team had accepted Dyson's apology and were not blaming him for losing a match they appeared to be winning, especially after Shivnarine Chanderpaul hit 26 off one Steve Harmison over during a stunning innings of 46 off 30 balls.

"He was looking in the wrong column," confirmed Gayle. "He explained it to us and apologised for that mistake.

"We're very disappointed to lose the game in this way, but in these circumstances no one wants to make this sort of mistake and I'm not going to kill him or anything like that.

"There is no reason to point any fingers at this point in time. We're here as a team and we'll go down as a team."

West Indies’ players wore tape on their sleeves during yesterday’s match - a reference to a strike by players in the Caribbean domestic first-class competition.

Play did not get underway in matches in Barbados, St Vincent and Jamaica, following the resignation of Dinanath Ramnarine as a director of the West Indies Cricket Board. Ramnarine, the former West Indies and Trinidad & Tobago spinner, also heads the West Indies Players’ Association, the players' union.