Battling West Indies rattle up 245
by Kanishkaa Balachandran, CRICINFO
A West Indies 245 for 9 (Chanderpaul 58, Barath 35, Chigumbura
2-43). Read more….
Shivnarine Chanderpaul led a much-improved West Indian response to Zimbabwe’s
spin attack to help the hosts reach a competitive 245 for 9. A cursory glance at
the scorecard points towards useful contributions from the bulk of the line-up
with eight batsmen reaching double-figures. Chris Gayle and Adrian Barath played
steady knocks, Chanderpaul provided solidity in the middle overs and the middle
order provided a surge at the death – 98 came off the last ten overs – to lift
West Indies to a score they will back themselves to defend.
Full report to follow
25 overs West Indies 84 for 1 (Barath 33*, Chanderpaul 14*) v Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe’s one-dimensional attack didn’t let West Indies accelerate, making the
hosts labour to 84 for 1 by the halfway mark at Arnos Vale. With spin from the
second over of the innings, it was clear that Zimbabwe’s strategy was to
strangle the batsmen by bowling a restrictive line, with the pitch offering
enough bounce as assistance. It was upto the hosts to try and work around that
and scrape out as much as possible on a venue not known for producing high
scores.
There was some encouraging bounce and movement off the seam for Zimbabwe when
Elton Chigumbura took the new ball, but another seamer at the other end would
have come in handy for Zimbabwe. Gayle’s footwork against him was very tentative
- he was practically nailed to the crease.
Gayle chose to go after the spinners but he nearly walked back on 4 when a top
edge off Ray Price dropped in the region behind short third man. He picked up
his first boundary by pulling a half-tracker from Price past midwicket in the
sixth over, before launching the same bowler over the roof at deep midwicket in
the tenth.
It was a quiet start by Gayle’s standards, with West Indies moving to 36 for no
loss after the first Powerplay. Gayle had only then started to open up, whipping
Chigumbura across the line to the deep midwicket boundary. But he was foxed by
his opposing number, Prosper Utseya, when on 33, beaten by the loop and turn and
stumped – for the first time in his ODI career – by Tatenda Taibu before he
could drag his foot back.
Zimbabwe could have claimed Barath as well, on 8, had Brendan Taylor not dropped
a sitter at square leg. It would have been a reward for some good bowling by the
spin trio of Price, Utseya and Greg Lamb. Barath made several attempts to chip
down the track, get to the pitch of the ball and force it through, only to check
his shot in the end. He employed the sweep on a few occasions and brought up his
second boundary by bisecting the big gap at deep square leg. Chanderpaul and
Barath then went about doing it in singles, and that trend is likely to
continue, with boundaries hard to come by.
Kanishkaa Balachandran is a
sub-editor at Cricinfo