LONDON, England, CMC – Pacer Fidel Edwards lamented the poor West Indies fielding yesterday that allowed England to complete the opening day of the first Test at Lord’s in a satisfying position.
Ravi Bopara, who was dropped twice, stroked an unbeaten 118 to steer England to 289 for seven at the close with as many as six dropped catches in the afternoon denying the Caribbean side a more advantageous position.
“We didn’t do ourselves any justice with all those dropped catches,” Edwards said after play ended.
Edwards had four catches put down off his bowling but still finished with striking figures of four for 53 off 19 overs and rates the current state of the game as even after the crucial glitches in the field.
“Probably I would say it (the game) is a bit even. If we had taken our chances, we would probably be on top now, we would probably be batting today. Hopefully tomorrow (today) we can come out and finish it off,” he added.
The 27-year-old Barbadian bowled with great pace and hostility although he described the pitch as “slow” and said he knew he had to put in a huge effort for the team.
“It (pitch) is green but it is pretty slow. I don’t mind the fact that it’s flat, but once the ball keeps swinging that will be ideal for me. My job is to bowl fast and get the ball in the right areas. This is Lord’s, the home of cricket, and every player dreams of doing well here. I had a good rhythm today and felt quite comfortable. Come tomorrow, we will look to maintain the pressure and look to bowl them out as early as possible,” he said.
Edwards was sensational after lunch, grabbing three wickets in a six-over spell. He sent back Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen to consecutive balls and also dismissed Paul Collingwood.
The left-handed Cook dragged on a full length delivery, Pietersen was superbly caught one-handed by keeper Denesh Ramdin as he edged a perfect outswinger, and Collingwood was snapped up at second slip by Devon Smith.
On taking the third scalp, Edwards did a salute to the vocal West Indies fans assembled in the stands. He returned later in the day to have Matt Prior caught at cover by Lendl Simmons.
“That was a very good ball to get rid of Kevin. Hopefully I would be able to get a few more of those to him (in the upcoming matches),” Edwards noted.
Edwards, who only arrived from South Africa this past weekend from Indian Premier League (IPL) action with the Deccan Chargers, said his recent stint in the abbreviated game proved advantageous.
He suggested that it helped his match sharpness although he was forced to make an adjustment for the longer version.
“It (the IPL) helped me a lot, seeing that I kept bowling, it really helped me being in the IPL, but IPL and Test cricket are really different so you’ve got to adapt and adapt really quickly,” he said.
