West Indies secured a place in the LG Abans triangular series final afteranother poor performance by Zimbabwe’s batsmen and a pyrotechnic battingdisplay by Chris Gayle at Asgiriya International Stadium on Sunday
Charlie Austin16-Dec-2001West Indies secured a place in the LG Abans triangular series final afteranother poor performance by Zimbabwe’s batsmen and a pyrotechnic battingdisplay by Chris Gayle at Asgiriya International Stadium on Sunday.Beaten so convincingly by Sri Lanka on Saturday, West Indies won in anequally emphatic manner today, as they bowled out Zimbabwe for 154 and wonby eight-wickets, reaching their target with 16 overs to spareGayle started his tour of Sri Lanka with a brilliant unbeaten hundred inMatara in the second warm-up game, but flopped in the Test series, recordingthree ducks in his last three innings.The one-day series started badly too, with another duck in West Indies firstgame 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 justnine runs in the first ten overs after losing his opening partner, DarenGanga, cheaply.But, from the 13th over, he went berserk, clattering the bowlers all roundthis small hill station stadium. Travis Friend was pummeled for 16 in theover and Henry Olonga for 20 in the next. He brought up his fifty with a sixoff Gray Brent’s first and last ball of the series, before smacking themedium pacer for four boundaries in his following over.Particularly ruthless square on the off-side, where he hit the ball withawesome power, Zimbabwe’s bowlers paid dearly for offering the left-handertoo much width.He added 106 runs for the second wicket with Ramnaresh Sarwan, who scoredjust 14 of them, before Olonga gained some revenge for his earlier bruisingwith a stinging catch in the covers.But, by then, West Indies were well ahead of the game and his dismissalsimply delayed the inevitable, as Sarwan (30 not out) and 20-year-olddebutante, Ryan Hinds (16 not out) sedately knocked off the remaining 35runs.During the morning, after Carl Hooper had won the toss and elected to bowlfirst, Zimbabwe’s top order had failed miserably, for the second time in theseries. For a while they looked unlikely to reach three figures, as theyslumped 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 ata 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 thatjagged back into the right-hander and Andy Flower, also trapped lbw, wereblameless.Medium pacer Darryl Brown, one of three changes to the side that lostyesterday, started his international career well with three for 21 in themiddle of the innings, capturing the key wicket of Flower.Heath Streak and Friend did show some belated resistance, as they added 60runs for the eighth wicket, with Streak scoring 57 before he holed out atlong off.West Indies now travel to Colombo to prepare for the final on Wednesdayagainst Sri Lanka. Hooper said afterwards he had a “strong feeling” that hisside could upset Sri Lanka.They will be without Brian Lara, who returned from the hospital to the teamhotel last evening after dislocating his elbow and will stay with the teamuntil the end of the tour. His arm will remain in a sling for two weeks andthe 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 21December.