Kenpachi Zaraki
03-28-2009, 06:01 AM
England's cricketers suffered another major humiliation against West Indies by suffering one of the biggest ODI defeats.
The tourists were hopeful of ending their tour of the West Indies on a high by winning the one-day series, despite suffering several embarrassing episodes this winter - including being dismissed for 51 in the opening Test in Jamaica.
But today the gulf in class between the sides was underlined in emphatic fashion with the hosts racing to an eight-wicket triumph in just 15.4 overs at the third encounter of the five-match series at the Kensington Oval.
Dismissed for a lowly 117 in just 41.3 overs, England were brutally brushed aside by the aggressive strokeplay of West Indies captain Chris Gayle, who raced to 80 off just 42 balls including five fours and eight sixes.
England have suffered more convincing defeats - Australia won by 10 wickets in Sydney six years ago by reaching their victory target in only 12.2 overs - but rarely have they been so comprehensively outplayed.
From the moment England opted to drop Steve Harmison, their quickest bowler, to accommodate the return of Andrew Flintoff on the bounciest pitch of the series so far, they were always struggling to remain in contention.
The folly of that decision was quickly underlined by the hosts, who won the toss and bowled first in a match firstly restricted to 45 overs by rain and then 44 overs by a further interruption.
It was evident from the start that Harmison's pace and bounce would have been ideal for such a surface with Fidel Edwards twice getting enough bounce to fizz deliveries past the batsman and beyond the reach of wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin to the boundary.
While Edwards was pure aggression from one end, Lionel Baker delivered a brilliant spell of accurate new ball bowling, sending down five maidens in his unbroken allocation of nine overs to strangle England's top order completely.
Four of the top six batsmen were out trying to either pull or hook and having slipped to 68 for eight at one stage, the tourists were on course to eclipse their lowest ever one-day total of 86 - recorded against Australia at Old Trafford in 2001.
The demise began with England's opening pair, who were once again unable to make an aggressive start and both perished in one Edwards over with Andrew Strauss caught by Gayle running back from slip trying to pull and Ravi Bopara falling two balls later to the same shot - caught at mid-on.
Their modes of dismissal set a trend among England's top order with Kevin Pietersen pulling Dwayne Bravo's first ball to midwicket, a shot which was unlikely to provoke much sympathy for his admission that he was feeling drained in a newspaper interview.
Flintoff became the second of four victims for man of the match Bravo by hooking straight to fine leg for a duck, Owais Shah tamely drove to point while Paul Collingwood was perhaps unlucky to be given lbw to the West Indies all-rounder by Steve Bucknor in his penultimate match as an international umpire.
It took a determined 48-run partnership between Dimitri Mascarenhas and Gareth Batty, whose off-spin was preferred to the pace of Harmison, to avert a new record low total and overhaul England's previous lowest score against West Indies - 114 at the same ground in 1986.
Both batsmen fell in successive overs as soon as the batting powerplay was taken to leave West Indies with a lowly Duckworth/Lewis target of 117 to claim a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.
Captain Gayle, subdued in his previous two appearances in the series because of a hamstring problem, quickly set about England's attack and signalled his intentions by hitting Stuart Broad for a six over third man in the opening over.
Broad was replaced after conceding 28 runs in his opening three-over spell, one of which was a maiden, with Strauss turning to Mascarenhas' medium pace as a method for halting Gayle's stunning strokeplay.
It was as disastrous a decision as the one to leave Harmison fuming in the dressing room and resulted in Gayle hitting Mascarenhas for 24 in an over. The third ball was launched over extra cover for six up the steps and through the open door to the England dressing room and brought up his half-century in only 27 balls.
Gayle's ferocious assault was finally ended when Jimmy Anderson returned and uprooted his leg-stump as he wound up for another huge hit, before Broad redeemed himself by bowling Ramnaresh Sarwan with a yorker.
But by then West Indies were closing in on an emphatic victory which is unlikely to help Strauss' ambitions to become permanent captain of England's misfiring one-day side.
England 117 (Mascarenhas 36, Bravo 4/19,Edwards 3/28; West Indies 117/2 Gayle 80 )
WI won by 8 wickets (D/L)
The tourists were hopeful of ending their tour of the West Indies on a high by winning the one-day series, despite suffering several embarrassing episodes this winter - including being dismissed for 51 in the opening Test in Jamaica.
But today the gulf in class between the sides was underlined in emphatic fashion with the hosts racing to an eight-wicket triumph in just 15.4 overs at the third encounter of the five-match series at the Kensington Oval.
Dismissed for a lowly 117 in just 41.3 overs, England were brutally brushed aside by the aggressive strokeplay of West Indies captain Chris Gayle, who raced to 80 off just 42 balls including five fours and eight sixes.
England have suffered more convincing defeats - Australia won by 10 wickets in Sydney six years ago by reaching their victory target in only 12.2 overs - but rarely have they been so comprehensively outplayed.
From the moment England opted to drop Steve Harmison, their quickest bowler, to accommodate the return of Andrew Flintoff on the bounciest pitch of the series so far, they were always struggling to remain in contention.
The folly of that decision was quickly underlined by the hosts, who won the toss and bowled first in a match firstly restricted to 45 overs by rain and then 44 overs by a further interruption.
It was evident from the start that Harmison's pace and bounce would have been ideal for such a surface with Fidel Edwards twice getting enough bounce to fizz deliveries past the batsman and beyond the reach of wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin to the boundary.
While Edwards was pure aggression from one end, Lionel Baker delivered a brilliant spell of accurate new ball bowling, sending down five maidens in his unbroken allocation of nine overs to strangle England's top order completely.
Four of the top six batsmen were out trying to either pull or hook and having slipped to 68 for eight at one stage, the tourists were on course to eclipse their lowest ever one-day total of 86 - recorded against Australia at Old Trafford in 2001.
The demise began with England's opening pair, who were once again unable to make an aggressive start and both perished in one Edwards over with Andrew Strauss caught by Gayle running back from slip trying to pull and Ravi Bopara falling two balls later to the same shot - caught at mid-on.
Their modes of dismissal set a trend among England's top order with Kevin Pietersen pulling Dwayne Bravo's first ball to midwicket, a shot which was unlikely to provoke much sympathy for his admission that he was feeling drained in a newspaper interview.
Flintoff became the second of four victims for man of the match Bravo by hooking straight to fine leg for a duck, Owais Shah tamely drove to point while Paul Collingwood was perhaps unlucky to be given lbw to the West Indies all-rounder by Steve Bucknor in his penultimate match as an international umpire.
It took a determined 48-run partnership between Dimitri Mascarenhas and Gareth Batty, whose off-spin was preferred to the pace of Harmison, to avert a new record low total and overhaul England's previous lowest score against West Indies - 114 at the same ground in 1986.
Both batsmen fell in successive overs as soon as the batting powerplay was taken to leave West Indies with a lowly Duckworth/Lewis target of 117 to claim a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.
Captain Gayle, subdued in his previous two appearances in the series because of a hamstring problem, quickly set about England's attack and signalled his intentions by hitting Stuart Broad for a six over third man in the opening over.
Broad was replaced after conceding 28 runs in his opening three-over spell, one of which was a maiden, with Strauss turning to Mascarenhas' medium pace as a method for halting Gayle's stunning strokeplay.
It was as disastrous a decision as the one to leave Harmison fuming in the dressing room and resulted in Gayle hitting Mascarenhas for 24 in an over. The third ball was launched over extra cover for six up the steps and through the open door to the England dressing room and brought up his half-century in only 27 balls.
Gayle's ferocious assault was finally ended when Jimmy Anderson returned and uprooted his leg-stump as he wound up for another huge hit, before Broad redeemed himself by bowling Ramnaresh Sarwan with a yorker.
But by then West Indies were closing in on an emphatic victory which is unlikely to help Strauss' ambitions to become permanent captain of England's misfiring one-day side.
England 117 (Mascarenhas 36, Bravo 4/19,Edwards 3/28; West Indies 117/2 Gayle 80 )
WI won by 8 wickets (D/L)