England hold mental edge
Stabroek News
March 19, 2004

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England captain Michael Vaughan has urged his side to show a ruthless streak when they meet West Indies in the second Test in Trinidad this morning at the Queen's Park Oval.

The home team are on the back foot psychologically after being bowled out for 47 and beaten in the first Test.

And Vaughan is looking for England to capitalise by taking a 2-0 lead.

"The two days after the win in Jamaica were fantastic, but as soon as we got off the plane in Trinidad the focus was purely on the next game," he said.

Vaughan does not expect the pitch at the Queen's Park Oval to offer as much help to his seamers, Steve Harmison in particular.

The Durham paceman was the hero of the 10-wicket win in Jamaica with career-best figures of 7-12 in the West Indies second innings. "It's always hard once you put in a world-class performance like that and all of a sudden there's all sorts of people wanting to talk to you.

"It's sometimes a good thing if you are away from home and you don't really get mixed up in all the euphoria back home," said Vaughan.

"I don't think the wicket is going to bounce as much as in Jamaica, but he's a class act and I'm sure he's got some kind of edge on the West Indies, having just got 7-12 against them."

For West Indies, their first task is to try restore some faith among their supporters, but their chances of bouncing back to level the series do not look good on a ground where they have lost five of their last six Tests.

Left-arm paceman Pedro Collins comes into the side but he is tame by comparison to injured half-brother Fidel Edwards, who dismissed England's top three in their first innings in the first Test.

The main threat to England, who will be unchanged, is expected to be Tino Best.

The Barbadian has the speed to test the nerve of any batsman, but is still far from the finished article.

West Indies have the option of shaking up their batting line-up by including Dwayne Smith or Ricardo Powell, but Ryan Hinds would be unlucky to be dropped after his first innings 84 in Jamaica.

Brian Lara has his work cut out to inspire West Indies

"We've done a lot of work behind the scenes at getting the team spirit back to where it was before the first Test match and everyone seems to be looking forward to it.

"It's a matter of putting the two hours on the fourth morning [in Jamaica] out of our minds and getting our act together," said skipper Brian Lara,

"Results in Trinidad over the last few years haven't been very favourable to us. I think we've lost to India, South Africa, Australia - and Zimbabwe ran us close here.

"It's a situation where, as a team, we're looking to turn things around in terms of results.

"For me personally, I would love to win one in Trinidad. We haven't done so a lot over the years and it would be great for Trinidadians to experience a win," he added. (BBC)

West Indies: B Lara (capt), C Gayle, D Smith, R Sarwan, S Chanderpaul, R Hinds, R Jacobs, D Smith, T Best, C Collymore, P Collins, A Sanford, R Powell.

England team: M Vaughan (Yorkshire, capt), M Trescothick (Somerset), M Butcher (Surrey), N Hussain (Essex), G Thorpe (Surrey), A Flintoff (Lancashire), C Read (Nottinghamshire, wkt), A Giles (Warwickshire), S Jones (Glamorgan), M Hoggard (Yorkshire), S Harmison (Durham).