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May 28, 2006 (Click to see the Scorecard)

Brian Lara and the West Indies got the victory they were looking for to keep the distance between the Indian side and their team as they won the 5th and final ODI at Port of Spain by 19 runs. West Indies with that completed the Series with a 4-1 win as India continued to play poor cricket especially in the batting department. The homeside truly deserved the victory as all the players chipped in do their bit, whether it was with the bat or the ball or just in the field as was the case with Sewnarine Chattergoon and also the substitute fielders. West Indies were put into bat first and they made 255 on the board and the Indian batsmen in their chase made plenty of elementary mistakes to lose out in the game. Brian Lara with this well deserved victory got a fitting farewell for his last ODI played in front of his home crowd.

West Indies started off their bowling surprisingly with Wavell Hinds and he got the 1st wicket to fall that of a clueless young Robin Uthappa (0), who had chased a ball that was swinging away from outside the offstump. Dhoni came in at No.3 to take full toll of the powerplays along with Sehwag. Dhoni opened his account with a couple to long on and the fielder over there, Corey Collymore accidentally twisted his ankle and that meant that the specialist medium pacer wouldn’t be bowling a single delivery in the match! Dhoni and Sehwag started to get the runs on the board and were looking extremely dangerous and West Indies had done well in adjusting their length to short of good length, in particular Jerome Taylor who bowled quick and got the batsmen under pressure. Wavell Hinds struck once again for the West Indies and this time he got Dhoni (14) chopping onto the stumps as the batsman was looking to force the pace on this slow track. The Indian Captain, who dropped in at no.4 to add to the middle order stability started positively and along with Sehwag took the bowlers on with his shots. India raced onto 72/2 after the end of 12 overs with both batsmen stroking the ball well. However in the 13th over, when Dave Mohammed, the chinaman bowler was into his 2nd over, Sehwag had pushed him just to the right of the bowler and took off for a non existent single. The bowler reacted quickly to stop the ball and fire it at the striker’s end which Dravid (18) had failed to reach in time leaving India back in the woods at 73 for 3. Yuvraj Singh then came in the middle to join Sehwag and was hitting everything from the middle of his blade and the runs were coming thick and fast from both these dangerous batsmen. Dave Mohammed got the breakthrough once again and this time it was his googly which Yuvraj (26) failed to read and went for an expansive drive without covering the line of the delivery. The ball turned sharply to drive through the bat pad gap and crash onto the stumps.
 

Despite all the problems at the other end, Sehwag kept his cool and decided to keep his shots all along the ground. But his problems compounded as Kaif and Raina fell in the space of over 4 overs to Jerome Taylor, who had come back for his 2nd spell. Kaif got out playing his drive early and Raina played a rash shot without moving his feet at all and Ramdin took a good sharp catch behind the stumps. Sehwag who was approaching his ton missed out on it for the 2nd time in this series and he was out in a similar fashion to Kaif. Jerome Taylor was the bowler once again and this one was a slower one and Sehwag who didn’t pick it up drove it early and spooned a catch to a tall man standing at covers. That tall man was Chris Gayle who seems to be intentionally stationed by Lara for Sehwag, who does hit lots of cover drives over the infield! With Sehwag (95) gone and with India at 189 for 7, that was the match for the West Indies! The rest of the match was just going through the motions although Agarkar and Harbhajan put on a spirited stand of 41 and the partnership in the end served to reduce the margin of the defeat. For West Indies, Dave Mohammed also picked up three wickets like Taylor.

The morning session saw Chris Gayle taking the initiative to give West Indies the ideal start smashing Sreesanth all over the place. Sreesanth was unlucky to receive the harsh treatment from Gayle after the left hander was dropped behind in the 2nd ball of the match. Agarkar brought the joy back to the Indians by embarrassing Sewnarine Chattergoon with a late inswinger and the left hander was cleaned up after shouldering arms to that delivery. Sarwan, the man in form, joined Gayle and the two consolidated as Dravid chose to hold on his powerplays with Gayle going hammer and tongs. Agarkar despite all that was bowling a tight spell and he got the respect from the two batsmen once again. Dravid had to take the powerplay soon and it was Sehwag who gave India the breakthrough knocking the stump of Gayle (51) with his offbreak. The left hander who was looking to play a slog sweep was beaten by the turn. Lara playing his last ODI innings came in and things started to slow down drastically with both batsmen intent on keeping the wickets intact for the slog overs. As West Indies came close to the last phase of their innings, urgency crept in the batting and Sarwan (52) looking to play a big shot missed to connect it and got bowled by an away seamer from Sreesanth. Lara’s end came as an anti climax as he slipped twice while attempting a 2nd run and way short on his ground in the end. Lara made a promising 36 which had a majestic six off Harbhajan. Bravo and Hinds gave West Indies the ideal finish by getting some useful twos and fours in the end. It was Bravo who once again impressed with his potential and he remained unbeaten on 62 and he had taken poor Munaf Patel to the cleaners in the end! Ajit Agarkar finished his bowling in this tour with 2/44 in his 10 and Sehwag gave just 29 in his 10.

This match saw a couple of changes in the Indian side with Pathan and Powar getting rested for Uthappa and Munaf and West Indies made as many as four changes! They did not have Fidel Edwards and Ian Bradshaw, their two main bowlers and yet they won the match with the resources they tried out. The other two players who missed out were Carlton Baugh and Marlon Samuels. Chattergoon, Denesh Ramdin, Dave Mohammed and Jerome Taylor were drafted back for this game.

Dwayne Bravo got the Man of the Match award for his all round show and Ramnaresh Sarwan got the Man of the Series award for his consistent performance with the bat. The One Day Series has been done and dusted now and it’s a quick change of the kits for both the teams as they put on the traditional whites for the 4-Tests Series with the 1st one starting from June 2nd at St.John’s, Antigua.

 

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