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Chanderpaul back
to form to help WI wrap up the Series at Bourda |
May 7, 2006 (Click to see the
Scorecard)
 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the former West
Indies Captain, who had been struggling to get
decent scores for his side finally regained his
touch to score a magnificent 93. Chanderpaul’s
93 which had come off just 82 balls took West
Indies to the highest ever total in LOIs played
in the Caribbean and the West Indies ended up a
mammoth 333 for 6 in their 50 Overs after
electing to bat first. Zimbabwe’s innings
started off in a disastrous fashion losing two
wickets in the 1st over of their innings and
looked as if they were going to be bundled out
cheaply. But good knocks from four of its
batsmen meant that Zimbabwe put on a decent show
managing 251 for 7 in their 50 overs. Once the
West Indies knocked off that massive total,
Zimbabwe were always out of the game and their
batsmen are of course not interested in winning
matches but are interested in showing that
Zimbabwe has the resources to last all the 50
overs.
Zimbabwe in their chase lost Rinkie in the very
first ball as the opener went onto the backfoot
to a pitched up delivery from Fidel Edwards. And
the bowler hit the stumps and celebrated by
signaling ‘you can’t see that’. Edwards struck
once again in the same over as the Zimbabwean
Captain Terrence Duffin hung his bat outside the
offstump to poke an away swinger. Two down for 1
were Zimbabwe but Fidel Edwards wasn’t getting
the support at the other end from Tino Best who
was simply wayward by spraying the ball on both
sides of the wicket. Justice Chibhabha and
Brendan Taylor showed their class and played
some glorious drives as the West Indian bowlers
started to look pedestrian and not really wicket
taking bowlers. The part time bowlers, Dwayne
Smith and Marlon Samuels got these two batsmen
out and by then both had put up an impressive 54
runs for the 3rd wicket. Smith got Taylor
trapped in front of the stumps and Chibhabha was
deceived in the air as Marlon Samuels, the off
spinner pushed it quickly into the blockhole.
Chibhabha was out with Zimbabwe at 114 and he
had kept the West Indies bowling at bay by
putting on another good partnership – this time
with Sibanda. Elton Chigumbura also came in and
played well land he along with Sibanda scored
half centuries but Zimbabwe were never trying to
get anywhere near the huge target. Tino Best
suffered in the hands of these talented
Zimbabwean batsmen as he got smacked for 70 in
his 10 overs. Fidel Edwards could just take one
more wicket that of Chigumbura to end his 10
overs quota for 3 for 42. Marlon Samuels did
what Chris Gayle does – rolling his off breaks
and picking up a couple of wickets. Zimbabwe in
the end lost the plot by 82 runs to lose the
series 0-3 with three more games to go in this
7-ODIs Series.
West Indies had given debut to left handed
opener Sewnarine Chattergoon, who couldn’t make
good use of his opportunity as he was needlessly
run out to a non existent single. Brian Lara,
the Captain walked in at No.3 today and he along
with Runako Morton played some superb shots and
West Indies were in a great position to put up a
total beyond 300. Interestingly Morton was
declared as run out and then called back to bat
in a Prosper Utseya over that lasted more than
12 minutes. Morton tried to set off for a non
existent single to the right of the offspinner
Utseya and was sent back by Lara and the bowler
did well to pick that up and fire in a direct
throw and Billy Bowden gave that as out. But
after the TV replays were aired, it was clear
that the keeper had disturbed the stumps with
his gloves accidentally before the ball ahd
crashed onto the stumps and Billy Bowden after
learning what had happened decided to call
Morton back. Both Lara and Morton fell after
making their half centuries and both were out
attempting to play shots rather than the bowlers
bowling great deliveries. Chanderpaul and Sarwan
then kept the scoreboard ticking with the ones
and the twos and the occasional fours. After
Sarwan was out slogging to long on. Chanderpaul
opened his shoulders to pick up good amount of
fours and sixes as he started to time the ball
brilliantly and also found the gaps with ease.
Chaderpaul’s efforts were given good finishing
touches by Dwayne Smith who hit a monstrous six
to help WI reach 333. Chanderpaul was looking
good for a hundred but in the kind of mood he
was, he didn’t care to block a yorker from
Rainsford and instead looked to work it onto the
onside for runs.
The West Indies should be pleased that their
batsmen have fired on all cylinders but their
bowlers need to bowl a good line and length
especially the fast bowlers and also bowl the
wicket taking deliveries. Zimbabwean batsmen
haven’t yet folded within the 100-run mark and
West Indies might be aiming at that in the
remaining two matches. So the West Indies’
bowling needs to improve drastically if they
have to win the next series which is against a
much tougher opposition in India.
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