Sport 01-09-2000 Cricket: Atherton and Trescothick Take A Stand who: England cricket team what: Finish 221-5 on first day of final Test where: The Oval, LONDON when: Yesterday snippet: "There was no logic whatsoever in Jimmy Adams`s decision to put England into bat at the Oval yesterday," says an astonished Christopher Martin-Jenkins in The Times, "but his bowlers and fielders responded so well that with a little more fortune his eccentric choice might have been thoroughly vindicated". Mike Atherton, having just announced his imminent retirement from cricket, paired up with Marcus Trescothick for a 159-run opening stand in the final Cornhill Test against the West Indies, but after Trescothick was finally given out, England lost four wickets in quick succession leaving them 221-5 by the end of the evening. The partnership was "the best opening stand by an England pair since Atherton and Mark Butcher made 179 against South Africa at Edgbaston two years ago," recalls Michael Henderson in The Telegraph, speculating that Trescothick must have been "bitterly disappointed" to fall 22 runs short of his first Test century. "When this Fifth Cornhill Test and the series is consigned to history, the opening partnership between Athers and Tresco could take on historical significance," comments John Etheridge in The Sun. "It might be the stand which ensures England overcome the West Indies in a series for the first time since the summer of `69". [... more]

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