world cup five-fer: day 38

England acknowledge one of the greats.

By Dave Tickner

1. Brian Lara
There's simply nowhere else to start. A genuine legend who has had the misfortune to play in an era of consistently poor West Indies sides. And although his final game was a cracker, it's a shame that his was only a peripheral role. He was looking good before Marlon Samuels ran him out, and it took at least half an hour for the Barbados crowd to recover their voices. And even then it was generally to boo Samuels as he departed having hit a scintillating 39-ball 51. Message to Samuels: don't run out your team's best player in his final game - it doesn't go down well.

Although brief, Lara's innings contained all the trademarks - high backlift, clever singles, astonishingly powerful yet elegant drives. Indeed the only thing Lara may have ever mistimed is his retirement - he's still the best batsman in this side and has much to give.

Anyone who doubts Lara's quality as a person as well as a sportsman need look no further than his post-match interview. When asked if he had achieved all he wanted to in the game, the man who has twice broken the world record for highest Test innings, holds the record for the highest individual first-class score and has scored 11,953 Test runs at almost 53 and over 10,000 ODI runs at 40 said: "Not really. From the very first time I played cricket it was always with 10 others guys on a team. My dream and my thinking over the last 17 years has been to help the Windies try to stay on top because when I arrived that is where they were. There was a decline and unfortunately we haven't been able to stop that."

The only good thing about Lara's retirement will be the dramatic reduction in the number of times irritating commentators refuse to refer to him as anything other than "Brian Charles Lara".

2. Can a game be great if it means nothing?
A tricky one. This was in every other way a classic match. Over 600 runs, 19 wickets, a brilliant century, some stunning fielding, some terrible fielding, a one-wicket victory and one ball to spare. But all this means... England finish fifth. The exact same game here in a week's time will have strong claims on being the greatest game ever. But that will be largely because it would be in the World Cup final.

Still, dead rubber or not, this World Cup desperately needs any good matches it can get. Beggars can't be choosers, and in a tournament full of dreary, one-sided encounters, England can make strong claims to have been involved in its two best games - this one and the earlier clash with Sri Lanka that also went right to the wire.

Scant consolation, admittedly, for a largely wretched campaign. But England can take little else from their seemingly endless jaunt round the Caribbean.

3. Kevin Pietersen
Made a quite brilliant century, expertly paced and bringing England back into contention. Pietersen has the knack of knowing exactly when the time has come for a bit of acceleration, and at times he single-handedly kept England in the game when wickets collapsed all around him.

Pietersen coped admirably with the added pressure of knowing for most of his innings that his team's fortunes depended entirely on him. The captain trying to plot his downfall could probably sympathise.

4. Michael Vaughan
This looked like it could well be Vaughan's final ODI. Not now. While Pietersen and Lara will steal the headlines, Vaughan can consider himself unfortunate to have missed out on the man-of-the-match gong. Without Vaughan's three for 39 in 10 nagging over of slow offspin, England's target would have been nearer 350 and well beyond them.

Even chasing the 300 West Indies did set, a good start was crucial. Someone had to attack the powerplays and that man was Vaughan, crafting a fine innings of 79 in just 68 balls.

Admittedly the competition isn't stiff, but this was comfortably Vaughan's best performance in ODIs.

He set the platform for the late drama with bat, ball and some shrewd captaincy to keep West Indies down to a manageable target.

The only problem was an apparent return of hamstring trouble when he batted.

5. Paul Nixon
Another hugely significant contribution from the veteran wicketkeeper. Pietersen said cheekily after the game that Nixon could be around for a while to come, and with Geraint Jones and Chris Read seemingly out of the frame, Nixon could yet fulfil his life's ambition and represent England in Test cricket this summer.

There may be less call for the reverse-sweep in the five-day game, but Nixon's infectious attitude in the field and pugnacious and sensble lower-order hitting have been a crucial part of the England team this winter. He could yet be irritating opposition batsmen and stump microphone operators over a far more prolonged period this summer.