West Indies cruise into final after Gayle's whirlwind display
West Indies secured a place in the LG Abans triangular series final after another poor performance by Zimbabwe's batsmen and a pyrotechnic batting display by Chris Gayle at Asgiriya International Stadium on Sunday
Charlie Austin
16-Dec-2001
West Indies secured a place in the LG Abans triangular series final after
another poor performance by Zimbabwe's batsmen and a pyrotechnic batting
display by Chris Gayle at Asgiriya International Stadium on Sunday.
Beaten so convincingly by Sri Lanka on Saturday, West Indies won in an
equally emphatic manner today, as they bowled out Zimbabwe for 154 and won
by eight-wickets, reaching their target with 16 overs to spare
Gayle started his tour of Sri Lanka with a brilliant unbeaten hundred in
Matara in the second warm-up game, but flopped in the Test series, recording
three ducks in his last three innings.
The one-day series started badly too, with another duck in West Indies first
game and a highest score of 21. But today, in front of a small Sunday crowd,
he provided rich entertainment on an otherwise soporific days cricket.
He started slowly, taking 15 balls to get off the mark, and scoring just
nine runs in the first ten overs after losing his opening partner, Daren
Ganga, cheaply.
But, from the 13th over, he went berserk, clattering the bowlers all round
this small hill station stadium. Travis Friend was pummeled for 16 in the
over and Henry Olonga for 20 in the next. He brought up his fifty with a six
off Gray Brent's first and last ball of the series, before smacking the
medium pacer for four boundaries in his following over.
Particularly ruthless square on the off-side, where he hit the ball with
awesome power, Zimbabwe's bowlers paid dearly for offering the left-hander
too much width.
He added 106 runs for the second wicket with Ramnaresh Sarwan, who scored
just 14 of them, before Olonga gained some revenge for his earlier bruising
with a stinging catch in the covers.
But, by then, West Indies were well ahead of the game and his dismissal
simply delayed the inevitable, as Sarwan (30 not out) and 20-year-old
debutante, Ryan Hinds (16 not out) sedately knocked off the remaining 35
runs.
During the morning, after Carl Hooper had won the toss and elected to bowl
first, Zimbabwe's top order had failed miserably, for the second time in the
series. For a while they looked unlikely to reach three figures, as they
slumped to 53 for seven.
They had no one to blame but themselves after a succession of loose shots.
Grant Flower (3) played down the wrong line, Stuart Carlisle (1) flashed at
a wide delivery, Craig Wishart (6) was run out and Trevor Gripper (4),
playing his first and last game of the series, wafted speculatively.
Only Dion Ebrahim, trapped lbw by good ball from Corey Colleymore that
jagged back into the right-hander and Andy Flower, also trapped lbw, were
blameless.
Medium pacer Darryl Brown, one of three changes to the side that lost
yesterday, started his international career well with three for 21 in the
middle of the innings, capturing the key wicket of Flower.
Heath Streak and Friend did show some belated resistance, as they added 60
runs for the eighth wicket, with Streak scoring 57 before he holed out at
long off.
West Indies now travel to Colombo to prepare for the final on Wednesday
against Sri Lanka. Hooper said afterwards he had a "strong feeling" that his
side could upset Sri Lanka.
They will be without Brian Lara, who returned from the hospital to the team
hotel last evening after dislocating his elbow and will stay with the team
until the end of the tour. His arm will remain in a sling for two weeks and
the management is hopeful that he can be back playing in 5-6 weeks.
Zimbabwe will now start preparations for a tough series against Sri Lanka,
starting on 27 December. They have a three-day practice match starting 21
December.