CRICKET: One day, when the game becomes too easy and he feels he can do as he wishes with the bowling, Marcus Trescothick can look back on this innings and reflect that it was the day when his game moved to a higher plane.
On a good day anybody can play well. But on the bad ones, when the timing deserts and all that remains is the desire to battle it through, only the best survive. Yesterday Trescothick dug as deep as ever he can have done to score his fifth one-day century, and it carried England to a dramatic victory over Pakistan in the third and final one-day international of the series. England took the honours 2-1 in what had been a ding-dong series.
There were nine balls remaining when Trescothick flicked Azhar Mahmood for six over the short midwicket boundary in front of the grandstand and won the game for England. It took his total to 108 not out and he was ecstatic, as he had every right to be.
When England had been 154 for six Pakistan had the game by the throat. Trescothick, though, found a worthy partner in the young wicketkeeper Chris Read, who played perkily, somehow survived some torrid fast bowling from Mohammad Sami, and was still there to celebrate with his partner at the end, having hit an unbeaten 25.
Small beer perhaps, but something that will stand him in good stead when the time comes to seek a replacement keeper for Alec Stewart in the Test slot. The unbroken seventh-wicket partnership of 77 came from 76 balls.
If the game was close, Pakistan - who had been 165 for six at one stage but with 91 from their last 10 overs finished on 229 for seven - will reflect on their profligacy, not to mention the shoddy luck that saw them drop three catches, miss four run-outs and have Michael Vaughan bowled neck and crop by a Sami no-ball.
Twice Trescothick should have been run out, first before he had scored and again after jabbing late on a Sami yorker, and Mohammad Hafeez decked a simple chance at midwicket after the left-hander, on 35, flicked loosely at Abdul Razzaq.
Much later, on 93 and with the game in the balance, Trescothick edged Shoaib Akhtar to Rashid Latif behind the stumps but the Pakistan captain spoiled a brilliant day by putting it down.
Shoaib had cast off the inaccuracies of Friday's defeat at The Oval to bowl thrillingly, accurately and rhythmically fast. On more forgiving days he could have won the day for his side; if he bowls like this for the rest of the summer Durham fans are in for a treat. Instead - and how deceptive figures of no wicket for 40 are - he took another caning.
What a reversal for Trescothick, to bat like a god one day and a dog two days later. On Friday, in bright sunshine and on a belting pitch, he had played one of the most brutal innings ever seen from an Englishman in a one-day international to win a match. Yesterday gloom descended, the pitch had more to offer the bowlers and it was a struggle for the Somerset vice-captain as he eked out runs.
But his innings was about hanging in, having the patience to see the bigger picture. In mid-innings, as his flow of runs was stifled by the judicious placement of two short third men for the off-spinner Hafeez, he scored only 11 runs in nine overs. And four wickets tumbled at the other end.
Trescothick knew, though, that for England to win he had to see it through. His 108, with that six as its climax, also contained nine fours and came off 144 balls.
England might have felt they had the game under control in the early stages. Darren Gough picked up a couple of wickets, and Andy Flintoff was a model of back-of-a-length accuracy.
That Pakistan made a defendable total was down to stands of 56, 48 and 60 for the fifth, sixth and seventh wickets. Younis Khan, having faced only one ball in the win at Old Trafford and two in The Oval defeat, would have completed a bizarre and possibly unprecedented sequence of three noughts had he been run out - as he should have - before he had faced a ball yesterday. But he went on to make 63, with Razzaq adding 64 from 63 balls.
Guardian Service
