A star performance...

A slightly odd, but ultimately fantastic day at the Oval for the ODI between England and the West Indies with my brother and sister in law.

Play was due to start at 1.00pm, but unfortunately the Windies team bus got stuck in traffic North of the river so things got put back for half an hour.

The weather forecast for today had been pretty gruesome, and the rain did come down quite heavily at one point, leading to a delay in play of about 90 minutes, but thereafter things improved, although the game was reduced from 50 to 40 overs a side.

The visitors never really got going having been put in to bat, and only some late order belligerence from Motie and Alzarri Joseph saw them post a total of 251 for 9.

Then came the England reply, and what a reply it was! Surrey favourite Jamie Smith, pictured here, blasted 63 runs from 28 balls, including one enormous six which went out of the ground, to completely demoralise the opposition and set a platform for a comfortable win by seven wickets with over 11 overs to spare.

This has been a very long day by my standards, and I'll most likely pay for it tomorrow, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world