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Super Gayle
steers Windies into the Finals |
November 02, 2006 (Link to
Scorecard)
 West
Indies led by a powerful century from Chris
Gayle made mincemeat of South Africa’s challenge
to storm into the Finals of the Champions Trophy
for the third time in the history of the
Tournament. The Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur
was the venue for the 2nd Semi-Final played
between South Africa and the West Indies which
turned out to be a one-sided affair once Chris
Gayle got his carnage going! The Proteas had
absolutely no chance to wake up from Gayle’s
onslaught as the Windies raced away to a
six-wicket win with 36 deliveries to spare.
It was the 15th ODI hundred for Chris Gayle with
this one being the third one in this tournament!
The tall left hander had carried his bat through
with a 135-ball 133 that had 17 hits to the
fence along with three stunning sixes! Set to
chase a challenging target of 259, the match was
in a balance as the South Africans had the class
in its bowling in the form of speedster Makhaya
Ntini and the clever Shaun Pollock. But both
these bowlers were taken out of the attack
thanks to the blistering shots played by Gayle.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the other opener was
equally dangerous from the South African point
of view as he found the boundaries with total
ease. However Chanderpaul couldn’t really go on
to score a hundred like his partner as he was
forced to retire hurt following a calf muscle
pain but not before he made 57 runs giving a
154-run stand in 26 overs for the opening
wicket! Interestingly Chanderpaul had batted
along with a runner in Dwayne Smith for sometime
before he opted to leave the field.
The Proteas needed a big collapse from the West
Indian batsmen who were in no mood to crumble
under pressure today. Every batsman who had come
in to join Chris Gayle had played his shots and
had also perished but it never bothered the team
who were cruising to a comfortable victory.
Windies had lost four wickets in relatively
quick time but Gayle was going strong at one end
to have the match under his control. All the
bowlers took a beating from Gayle and that had
forced Graeme Smith to postpone his two
powerplay blocks. West Indies had actually got
off to a dream start knocking off 76 runs in the
first 10 overs compared to the 83 runs scored by
South Africa in their 20 overs of field
restrictions! It was totally Chris Gayle’s day
once he had started off with consecutive
boundaries in the first over bowled by Shaun
Pollock in the West Indies’ chase. There were no
chances offered by Gayle as well as he was
determined to see his side finish the match off
in grand style. Apart from Gayle and Chanderpaul,
Ramnaresh Sarwan was the other significant
contributor with a quick 27 before getting lbw
to Ntini.
 The
big day started with Graeme Smith winning the
toss and choosing to bat first. Both sides made
two changes each with South Africa taking a big
gamble in presenting the inexperienced Loots
Bosman, his first match of the tournament. Boeta
Dippenaar was dropped along with Charl
Langevedlt who had made way to left arm spinner
Robin Peterson. West Indies’ changes were
obvious ones with the return of Dwayne Smith and
Ian Bradshaw in place of Corey Collymore and
Fidel Edwards. Jerome Taylor struck early for
his side as he got Smith beaten for pace and
movement to be clean bowled. Kallis, the one
drop batsman got out after getting frustrated at
not able to pierce the gaps to leave SA at 65
for 2 in the 17th over. All this while, Loots
Bosman was showing some sparkling talent with
the bat as he dispatched some loose deliveries
with some authority. Bosman could make only 36
runs though before getting out through a soft
dismissal. A brilliant partnership then followed
between the out of form Herschelle Gibbs and AB
de Villiers that laid the platform for South
Africa. Gibbs went onto make an impressive 77
from 90 balls with 4 fours and a six before
falling in the final over of the innings.
Abraham de Villiers was the second highest
scorer with 46 to his name, his partnership with
Gibbs for the fourth wicket was worth 92 runs.
The bowling from West Indies wasn’t bad and
their fielding was quite good saving some
important runs. Jerome Taylor continued to
impress with his pace to finish off with a
couple of wickets which had come at the cost of
48 runs in 10 overs. One thought that the wicket
would continue to be slow and stroke making
wouldn’t be that easy but Gayle and Chanderpaul
just made batting look so easy. The wicket
looked as if it was transformed into a batsman’s
paradise and that South Africa were short of
atleast 50 runs! Chris Gayle was the Man of the
Match for his glorious century. He had also
bowled decently well giving away 48 runs in his
10 overs which was useful in restricting South
Africa around the 250-mark. West Indies who have
been the only side to have defeated Australia in
this tournament meet them again, this time in
the Final to be played at the Brabourne Stadium
in Mumbai on the 5th.
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