Cricket

Windies Give a Whimper

Sunday 7th February 2010

Author: LMSC

Photographer:

Despite the grand declaration from West Indies skipper Chris Gayle that his side would sweep their one day series against Australia with a 4-1 victory, the opening game of the five match tournament was a complete shambles for the touring side at the MCG on Sunday night.

The Australian’s fresh from their 5-nil one day whitewash of Pakistan, delivered some similar treatment against their new opponents inflicting a 113 run defeat on the West Indies to signal what could be another dire result for a touring team this summer.

With the home side setting  an attainable 257 batting first, Chris Gayle's men could only manage a whimper being bowled out for 143 in just the 35th over.

Ryan Harris lead the way for Australia with the ball claiming 3 for 24, while spinner Nathan Hauritz also claimed three scalps while conceding 28 runs.

As for Gayle, who said in the lead up that his side wasn’t intimidated by the Australians, he could only manage a paltry 7 runs, being the first batsman to fall in the Windies innings.

"It's very disappointing - this is not the start we wanted, it's a terrible display," Gayle said after the match.

"The way we go about our batting is our biggest downfall. We thought we were capable but we fell well short."

"I thought we did pretty well with the ball, the wicket was a bit slower but I thought we should have got 257.

The Windies run chase begun in the worst possible fashion. First it was Gayle heading back to the pavilion after facing just five balls, before fellow opener Runako Morton joined him just one run later with the tourists reeling at 2-12.

When Bollinger claimed his second wicket just moments later, Travis Dowlin for 1, the stage was set for a West Indies thumping with 3 down for the addition of just 12 runs after five overs.

"The start was very important and we didn't get that sort of start," said Gayle.

"To lose three wickets in the first 10 overs, it's always going to be hard. We have to go back to the drawing board and see what we come up with in Adelaide."

Lendl Simmons (29) and Narsingh Deonarine (19) managed a mini fight back adding 32 runs before the latter became Mitchell Johnson’s first wicket. Kieron Pollard (31) then joined Simmons for a 64-run stand to push the total beyond 100 runs but when Pollard fell to Hauritz the tourists were 5-108.

Simmons followed three runs later, caught by the keeper Brad Haddin off the bowling of Shane Watson.

The final four Windies wickets falling for 32 runs.

For the hosts, Watson top scored with 59 runs with captain Rickey Ponting (49) falling just short of his half century.

Pollard was the best with the ball for the Windies claiming three wickets while Ravindrinath Rampaul finished with two.

For his efforts with the bat and ball, Watson was named man-of-the-match, a somewhat fitting accolade in his 100th match for Australia.
"To contribute the way I did today is always nice,'' Watson said.

"We knew 250 was going to be a very competitive score if we bowled really well, especially if we got Chris Gayle out nice and early as well, it was always going to make it that little bit easier.

"Everyone contributed really well to be able to finish them off pretty easily.''

As for the tourists, who had to compete without a raft of veteran players including Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan - all injured, it was a match that would be quickly forgotten according to their skipper 

"It's not the sort of start we wanted in this ODI series, but having said that the damage is done so it's back to square one,'' Chris Gayle said..

"We're looking forward to Adelaide and getting back into the series as quickly as possible.''

The two sides meet again in Adelaide on Feb 9th.