Decades Tournament - 2000s England v 2000s Rest of the World

 

England beat the Rest of the World by 7 wickets with 6 overs of their Christchurch Test remaining. In truth it was a more comfortable victory than that, with Vaughan's team arguably playing better for less reward against India at Old Trafford. 

What must also be noted is that ROW had the worst of conditions throughout the game, having been put in on a green top and then battling with increasing turn. ROW's 1st inns 218 always looked inadequate and was proven so as England built a commanding lead of 214. Strauss and Vaughan batted well but it was arguably a 9th wicket stand of 94 between Giles (67) and Simon Jones (38no) which demoralised their opponents most. 

Typically, Chanderpaul played a doggedly defiant innings of 109no, spread over 5 mins short of 7hrs. This on its own could not prevent the inevitable. England were not at their best but utilised conditions well as a team. Simon Jones cleaned up the 2nd innings tail and showed some batting prowess, so took the MOM accolade.

Rest of the World 2000s: KC Sangakkara (wk), DPM Jayawardene, SP Fleming, Mohammad Yousfu, S Chanderpaul (c), WPUJC Vaas, DL Vettori, Shoaib Akhtar, Mushtaq Ahmed, SE Bond, Danish Kaneria

England 2000s: ME Trescothick, AJ Strauss, MP Vaughan (c), KP Pietersen, PD Collingwood, A Flintoff, GO Jones (wk), MJ Hoggard, SP Jones, AF Giles, MS Panesar

Rest of the World 2000s 1st Innings 218-10 (92.2 Ov)

DL Vettori, S Chanderpaul 40, DPM Jayawardene 35, A Flintoff 3-31, MJ Hoggard 3-47, MS Panesar 2-30

England 2000s 1st Innings 432-10 (165.2 Ov)

MP Vaughan 83, ME Trescothick 71, AF Giles 67, Shoaib Akhtar 3-91, SE Bond 2-68, WPUJC Vaas 2-68

Rest of the World 2000s 2nd Innings 301-10 (132.1 Ov)

S Chanderpaul 109*, SP Fleming 51, Mohammad Yousuf 29, SP Jones 3-61, AF Giles 2-37, MJ Hoggard 2-51

England 2000s 2nd Innings 88-3 (23.1 Ov)

AJ Strauss 34

England 2000s win by 7 wickets

Man of the Match: SP Jones