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Stanford Superstars 101-0 (Gayle 65no, Fletcher 32no) beat
England 99 all out (Patel 22, Benn 3-16, Sammy 2-15) by 10 wickets
Stanford 20/20 For $20 Million Match, Antigua
England stumbled to their lowest ever score in a Twenty20 match before being utterly demolished by the margin of 10 wickets by the Stanford Superstars in the final match of the Stanford Super Series in Antigua.
England were bowled out for 99 with Samit Patel top scoring with just 22 before Chris Gayle hit five sixes in an unbeaten 65, sealing the match with a six off of Andrew Flintoff in the 13th over of their reply.
Six England batsmen were bowled, including openers Ian Bell (seven), Matt Prior (12), Kevin Pietersen (seven) and Flintoff (eight) as poor shot followed poor shot in the face of disciplined bowling and committed fielding.
Owais Shah skied a catch to Dave Mohammed off of Darren Sammy having made four and Paul Collingwood (10) and Luke Wright (one) both perished to catches in the deep trying to up the run rate.
The only partnership of note came between Patel and Stuart Broad (nine not out), and even that was worth just 28 as left-arm spinner Suliman Benn picked up three for 16, Sammy two for 15, Jerome Taylor two for 25 and Kieron Pollard two for 26. Daren Powell went wicketless, but bowled a superb spell, conceding just 18 runs from his four overs.
The only blip in their performance came when Mohammed, whose catch to dismiss Shah was a superb effort, dropped Patel when he was on four.
It hardly mattered as the Superstars opening batsmen Gayle and Fletcher flayed the England bowling to all parts, Gayle launching Steve Harmison for consecutive leg-side sixes prior to the shot which made him, and his 10 team-mates instant millionaires.
England could, however, have run Fletcher out twice as the pair ran edgily early on but soon enough, running was taken out of the equation as the boundaries began to flow, Fletcher setting himself to hit just about everything, hitting Broad for three fours in one over.
England's two spinners, Graeme Swann and Patel got one over apiece as the Superstars ran riot.
© Cricket World 2008
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