West Indies beat England in opening Double Wicket match

Match 1: West Indies v England

After winning the toss and fielding, England restricted West Indies to 39 from their 8 overs. The home side comprised Chris Gayle and Carl Hooper, while Adam Hollioake and Andy Flintoff represented England.

Hooper and Gayle chose a careful approach to the Double Wicket challenge - batting cautiously throughout, wary of the impact of losing 10 runs for every wicket lost. England's bowlers were economical, conceding only one boundary, a glance by Hooper off Hollioake in the seventh over. Flintoff bowled with pace and accuracy, always looking difficult to score off, and beating the batsmen outside the off stump on a number of occasions. Hollioake struggled with his line, conceding three wides in his first over, but otherwise looked characteristically difficult to score off on a slow wicket.

In reply, Adam Hollioake was dismissed in the first over by Hooper, a mis-timed drive to mid-wicket getting England off to the worst possible start. Andy Flintoff (22) looked in good touch, mixing sound defence with pugnacious hitting, including one memorable six over long on off the bowling of Hooper. Hollioake too joined the party in the later overs, sweeping the spinners effectively. Left with 15 to win off the last over, another big hit from Flintoff just fell short of the midwicket boundary, giving early hope to England supporters. However, with Gayle mixing the pace of his deliveries well, England fell 7 runs short of the required total.

West Indies 2 points, England 0.