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Gayle's cracking
century overshadows yet another one-sided affair |
October 11, 2006 (Link to
Scorecard)
 The
ICC Champions Trophy 2006 in India witnessed yet
another one-sided affair for the fourth time in
a row with the Windies thrashing Bangladesh by
10 wickets. Nobody at the Sawai Man Singh
Stadium nor the people watching the match will
be greatly disappointed at the no-contest as
Chris Gayle's power packed hundred was worth all
the money and was a true spectacle under the
glowing lights. Three towering sixes along with
11 boundaries had come from the left hander
which got the crowd on their feet. It was no
surprise that Chris Gayle ended up with a second
consecutive Man of the Match award in this
tournament.
A warm day greeted the players for the first
Champions Trophy match being played in the Pink
City, Jaipur. Bangladesh were off to a winning
start with Habibul Bashar beating Brian Lara
when it came to Heads and Tails. Bangladesh went
with the same side that had played against Sri
Lanka while Windies brought in Corey Collymore
at the expense of Dwayne Smith. The Asian
minnows decided to bat first under ideal batting
conditions and looked to set up a decent total
to give their bowlers something to bowl at.
However Ashraful provided a disastrous start as
he selected a pull shot against a ball that
wasn't short and kept low from Jerome Taylor.
Ashraful was struck low on the pads finishing
with an awkward looking stroke. Aftab Ahmed
joined Shahriar Nafees and all of a sudden the
Tigers and its fans were jumping with joy as the
one drop batsman, Aftab began to play some great
shots. Jerome Taylor was hit out of the attack
by the short Aftab who swung the bat to play
some clean shots in the air. Aftab was also
dropped by Marlon Samuels at deep square leg
which only gave him another opportunity to
continue the onslaught. Inspired by his partner,
Shahriar as well brought up some good shots and
just when the partnership looked threatening,
Shahriar departed cutting Samuels to the slip.
The left handed opener made 38 from 68 with 5
fours to put up 85 for the second wicket.
Corey Collymore, the first change bowler for
West Indies changed the complexion of the match
by giving a double blow to Bangladesh dismissing
Saqibul Hasan and Habibul Bashar in consecutive
deliveries. While Saqibul dragged his expansive
drive onto his stumps, Bashar fell across the
line to get rapped up in front of middle. The
scoreboard which was going on at an impressive
rate now read 96 for 4 in the 21st over! It was
soon 107 for 5 with the set batsman Aftab Ahmed
throwing it away after reaching a personal score
of 59. Aftab lofted Samuels safely into
Chanderpaul's hands at long on and his 59 which
had come in just 55 balls with 7 fours and 2
sixes was just good for the highlights package
more than anything else. Bangladesh crashed to
161 as they could never recover from the jolts.
All the tail enders along with Khaled Mashud
could do was to prolong the innings and keep the
West Indies fielders waiting. It took 46.3 overs
for Windies to bowl out Bangladesh. Dwayne Bravo
picked up three and the trio of Taylor,
Collymore and Samuels took two wickets apiece.
It was a cakewalk for West Indies, the target
was hardly anything and they had to bat terribly
if they had to lose this one. Bangladeshi medium
pacers Mashrafe Mortaza and Syed Rasel got the
respect from Gayle and Chanderpaul early on but
once Gayle got his eye in, there was no stopping
of the Gayle Power. But the spinners who were
brought in early, Abdur Razzak and Mohammad
Rafique were successful in pegging back the
scoring rate and the two left handers started to
pick the singles rather than go for the biggies.
Gayle couldn't keep himself quiet for a long
time and he waited for sometime before carrying
out another brutal attack on the poor bowlers.
Habibul Bashar took Abdul Razzak off and brought
in Farhad Reza to bowl his slow medium pacers
and he was taken to the cleaners by Gayle who
whacked him for four boundaries. Farhad Reza's
replacement in the next over was Aftab Ahmed who
was taken for 12 runs and by then Windies were
in touching distance to the target of 162. There
were a couple of milestones that Windies wanted
to achieve before getting to 162 which they did
with Chanderpaul getting to his 40th ODI fifty
and Chris Gayle notching up his 13th ODI
hundred. Gayle was not out on 104 from 118 balls
and Chanderpaul was too slow getting his 52 not
out from 104 balls but he showed some
unbelievable timing to get 6 boundaries. The
target was reached by West Indies with 80
deliveries to spare and with all the 10 wickets
intact.
Bangladesh could have posted something over 200
and may be even 250 had Aftab Ahmed carried onto
make a hundred with support from the other
batsmen. But it wasn't any smart cricket played
by Bangladesh as it lost its last eight wickets
for just 66 runs. They will be the favourites
though to win their next outing which is on the
13th as they take on Zimbabwe. West Indies will
be happy with the discipline they had shown with
the ball as they bowled five wides and there
wasn't a single no ball bowled! Their batting
looks to be solid but they are a few players
down the order who haven't had a feel in the
middle yet.
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