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An era of splendid majesty ended with the conclusion of the 48th match of super eights. Brian Charles Lara bode farewell to cricket fields, while his millions of fans wept and waived. Though he remained unable to make his departure memorable by scoring just 18 runs, he has done enough to live for a long in the hearts of cricket maniacs within West Indies and elsewhere.

Malcom Speed and his other ICC officials took a sigh of relief when atlast at the twilight on world cup, on 47th day, some sensation and electricity came to the game. First haywire game of this event warmed the hearts of many. Though England won the game by a hair’s difference, it was a win-win game for both.

In a retort of Windies’s 300 massive target, England barely managed to get past it, courtesy to Kevin Pietersen’s second World Cup century and the nerve management by the tail. During English batting, when England seemed to dominate mainly due to the charging of their skipper Vaughan and youngster Ravi Bopara, Bravo applied the brakes with his stunning fielding. His two direct runouts of Vaughan and Bopara, almost sealed the deal for Windies. The early dismissals of Paul Collingwood and Andrew Flintoff dipped the English hopes to a very low level.

When Kevin Pietersen joined the much-talked about Paul Nixon, thier was a cloud of apprehension and despair over English fans. England needed 112 runs in 80 or so balls and there wasnt much batting to come afterwards. But Kevin didnt give much thaught to this mounting pressure and went about playing with his natural flair. He completed his fourth ODI century with a grand six to Jerome Taylor over midwicket before getting bowled out by the same bowler.

Dalrymple and Liam Plunkett also didnt show much interest, but the men who saw it all were Stuart Broad and cheeky Nixon. In the last two overs, the contest was nail-biting run-a-ball. After Nixon’s departure, it were the broad shoulders of Broad that won the game for England. Broad and England would never forget those 5 runs made by him.

Earlier chris Gayle with his trademark eleganct casualness, snatched his form back, though one would think its too late for this event. He along with, Devon Smith provided a dream start for Windies. Both opened their winds initially and chased England all over the place. Their stokes baffled England to no end. Gayle’s gun fired 3 sixes and 10 fours with the strike rate of 136. His 79 runs haul on just 58 balls was a feast to eyes. Smith also tasted the party with a long fork, and devoured his share with gusto. His 61 runs included some 6 blasting fours. Thankfully for England, Freddie managed to get both of them out.

Marlon Samuels earned his keep by making a decent half century, though he was as cheeky as anyone could be. But at the end of the day his 1 mega six and six 4’s were all everyone would want to remember in Barbados.

The match like this was long awaited. Cricket is all about thrill, excitement and sensationalism. Matches like these are which add real color to the game.

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