The Golden Isles - A Third Time Lucky West Indies Story

[Imager36]

It's a real shame... I feel as though with Gayle and Shiv we'd have been competitive.



It was their opening partnership which worked to win the game, in retrospect. 133 runs at a good pace, before the spinners came on to strangle the charge. Their combined figures were 3/66 from 20 overs, which probably tells you more about how poor the remaining bowlers were! A flurry of wickets fell towards the end, as is the usual, making Nelon Pascal have good figures.

Simmons was out bowled 3rd ball to Finn, and Darren went not long after to leave us in real strife at 11/2. Soon this became 125/6, and our game and series was over, despite resistance from Paul and Russell.

Series State - England win the series 2-0, with 1 match to play.
Batting Award - Mike Paul - His first international 50, and a good omen.
Bowling Award - Narine/Hinds - Tied the innings up in the middle and deserve it as much as each other.

Team News - Bishoo in for Holder.

[Imager36]

Didn't do too badly, considering.



England got off to a very good start, having won the toss. Before you could get a cup of tea, they were 92/0, and then 197/2 as Cook, Bell and Trott slaved. Luckily, Narine and Hinds stemmed the flow of runs in this second partnership, or they were on for well over 300. Wickets fell to Pascal and Pollard in the last ten overs, and England ended with a total of less than they would have wanted half way through.

Simmons was out early to Steve Finn, Burton and Darren put on 95 in slightly slower time than they should have. In the end, Darren's 45 came from 60 balls and Burton's 70 from 90 balls. Something quick and special was needed from the lower order, and despite the best efforts of Paul (21 from 34), Pollard (29 from 26) and Browne (31 from 21), we never looked like getting over the line and were all out with 18 balls remaining.

Series State - England lead the series 1-0 with 2 to play.
Batting Award - Shane Burton - Gave us a good platform, but unfortunately got out at the wrong time.
Bowling Award - Kieron Pollard - 10 overs, 3/46, our best performer with the ball.

Team News - Holder in for Sarwan.

[Imager36]

Play a weakened side - Fare severely better than did in first two matches.



We won the toss and batted, and at 1/2 with both openers gone, that looked a howler! Sarwan and Nash put on 101, however, and whilst Burton and Darren went cheaply, Browne put up a resistance of 32 not out while the tail crumbled around him.

They started with a collapse of their own. Rampaul got one and Sammy three as they fell to 22/4, and then Dwayne joined in for 50/5. Nuggety Wainwright and Bresnan put on 72, however, and Rampaul removed the tail after Miller got his first test wicket.

A lead of 43 felt substantial in this low scoring affair, but we could not make it pay. In our second innings, only Powell made above 14, and the rest were rubbish. That is all.

We got 2 early wickets to leave them 26/2, but partnerships from Bell with Pietersen and Bresnan secured that they won the match.

Series State - England sweep the series 3-0.
Batting Award - No-one - They don't deserve it.
Bowling Award - Darren Sammy - A good return to the Test arena, may get another chance in the future.

Right, so... 3 ODI series against the strong English, with no Gayle or Chanders.

Oh wait... Oh bugger. In my 'defense against injuries', where some of the high profile players didn't play that last test... vice-captain Kirk Edwards got injured for his island and is out for what amounts to the rest of the season. 3 frontline batsmen down... come on youngsters.

A. Barath (O)
L. Simmons (OK) (C)
Darren Bravo (BAT)
R. Sarwan (BAT)
S. Burton (BAT)
M. Paul (BAT)
K. Pollard (ALL)
M. Browne (K)
R. Hinds (ASP)
A. Russell (ALL)
J. Holder (SEAM)
D. Bishoo (SPIN)
K. Roach (SEAM)
S. Narine (SPIN)
N. Pascal (SEAM)

Barath, Roach, Bishoo and Holder miss out, Holder simply because he is too erratic to be in a 5 man attack without the safeguard of Gayle in the side. With no Barath, Burton opens, and Browne is in the side so Simmons can focus on his vice-vice-captaincy.

[Imager36]

A very similar match to the first.



Our innings was steady. Despite getting 284 all out, our highest partnership was 67. Gayle was in great form with his century, Sarwan made 31, Nash 48, Dwayne 33 and Holder 24. Finn and Anderson were our main destroyers. All was disappointment.

This time, however, we managed to get England all out. For just under 500. Narine was impressive, but still went for almost 30 runs per wicket. Holder and Rampaul took 2 wickets each, and Bishoo only managed one. Dwayne did not manage any, but wasn't really given the chance to.

Unfortunately we suffered another big injury at the top of the 2nd innings. Chris Gayle suffered a nasty blow and has a fracture of... something. Steve Finn was again responsible. We were effectively 140/5 when Sarwan fell for 57, but Brendan Nash reliably hit a hundred and Dwayne Bravo smashed 63 from 80 balls. The rest of the tail gave no resistance.

Rampaul picked up the wicket of Trott, but that was the only reason for positivity as England strolled to victory.

Series State - England win the series 2-0 with 1 match to play.
Batting Award - Brendan Nash - 148 runs in the test, and only out once.
Bowling Award - Sunil Narine - The only man up to a standard similar to the one he should be at.

Squad/Team News - In a move which devalues test cricket, I am removing my frontline one day players from the range of Steve Finn. As such, the squad is incredibly different, and it's easier just to list the team for you.

Team for 3rd Test - Barath, Powell, Sarwan, Nash, Burton, Dwayne Bravo, Browne (K), Sammy, Rampaul (C), Miller, Pascal.

So that's test débuts for Burton and Browne, and chances for Powell, Barath, Sammy, Miller and Pascal to push their claims.

[GrahamB]

You're really up against it in England. Their batting is immense and their pace attack deadly.

[Imager36]

A disappointing match in so many ways.



We won the toss and batted, but were in trouble as Gayle went early. Simmons and Shiv rebuilt until Lendl was out for 59. Edwards came and went, but Shiv continued to build until he was struck on the head by a vicious bouncer from Finn and felled. Shell-shocked, Bravo, Nash and Bravo slowly continued, but did not go on from their starts, and the tail was removed speedily.

Our seamers didn't manage a single wicket between them in England's 125.4 over innings. Sunil Narine only managed 3 himself, from 31.4 overs, but the seamers were tragic. Apart from Holder, they all went at over 4 an over. We never had even a chance against the English batsmen. They declared at just over 500, where I was expecting them to go on toward 600, but we didn't have a chance however they played it.

With over 2 days left, we tried to get as many runs as we could, with our first target being to make them bat again. With Chanderpaul still unfit to bat we'd lost our best player, and wickets fell at regular intervals to ensure we never stood a chance of making the game interesting.

After we were all out though, the game went as well as it could have. Holder managed to injure Andrew Strauss when he was on a duck, putting one of their batsmen in the hospital bed next to Shiv, with the same complaint.

Series State - England lead the series 1-0 with 2 matches to play.
Batting Award - Shiv Chanderpaul - Batted once in the match, but still deserves this for his unbeaten century.
Bowling Award - Jason Holder - Injured Andrew Strauss. Good revenge, Jason.

Both of the injured men are out for 3 weeks, meaning Shiv could be back for the T20I against England, and subsequent T20 World Cup.

Squad/Team News - An experienced head is required, and Ramnaresh Sarwan replaces Shiv for the 2nd test. He will bat at number 5, with Darren Bravo at 4 and Kirk Edwards at 3. Andre Russell also leaves the eleven, and is replaced by Devendra Bishoo.

[Imager36]

And only 3 wickets, but 12 balls left.



New Zealand were again in early grief at 37/3, but an attacking partnership between Williamson and de Boorder rescued them. Another collapse followed, proceeded by another revival, this time by Watling and Southee, and despite our best efforts, we couldn't bowl them out.

128 was always a below-par total, but as Simmons and Chanderpaul went to their first ball each, we were in trouble. Darren and Gayle rescued us with a partnership of 61, but they were both out and Burton, Pollard and Dwayne failed to take us to victory. When Holder came in, we needed 28 more runs to win. Luckily, he hit his first 2 balls for sixes, and never looked back, scoring 27 from 10 balls in what turned out to be a partnership of 30 with the passive Russell.

Series State - West Indies win the series 2-0.
Batting Award - Jason Holder - 27 from 10 balls is quite an effort, and if he had been out early, we would have lost.
Bowling Award - Pollard/Narine - Returned figures of 3/20 and 2/17 from their 4 overs respectively. As such, impossible to separate.

Next up, a challenging home 3 Test series against England. We won't roll over as easily as we did in England last year. Here's the 12 man squad for the first test.

C. Gayle (OASP)
L. Simmons (OK)
S. Chanderpaul (BAT)
K. Edwards (BAT)
Darren Bravo (BAT)
B. Nash (BAT)
Dwayne Bravo (ALL)
A. Russell (SEAM)
R. Rampaul (SEAM) (C)
J. Holder (SEAM)
D. Bishoo (SPIN)
S. Narine (SPIN)

I suppose the controversial decision there is the omission of Ramdin in favour of Simmons and the extra batsman, but he kept well enough in those NZ tests to warrant inclusion. The pitch report says spin is likely to be a bit rubbish, so it is Bishoo who misses out.

[Imager36]

Wow, they crumbled again.



Early wickets gave us real hope in the match, with NZ being 9/3 before really getting on the pitch! Williamson and de Boorder rebuilt a little, but they both fell to leave the black caps 35/5. Two good partnerships left them 89/6, but another collapse meant they were soon 100 all out.

The openers made a slow 53 partnership, but this was not a problem. Shiv came in, and guided us to a simple victory.

Series State - West Indies lead 1-0 with 1 to play.
Batting Award - Chris Gayle - 38 from 37 balls to make our win easy.
Bowling Award - Narine/Holder - 3 wickets apiece, good economy from both. Brilliant.

Team News - None.

[Imager36]

Right, let's do these both together seeing as though they matter not.

First up, a fairly regulation victory.



We bowled first, and all the bowlers bowled to a similar level. Holder was dangerous at the start of his spell, removing Williamson, Taylor and Guptill, but was not as effective when brought back on later. Bishoo failed to keep the runs down as well as Narine would have. De Boorder was destructive for them.

After a good start by Simmons, Chanderpaul and Gayle, it felt like the match was sewn up. I promoted Burton to number 4 to make a telling contribution, which he failed to do, and Paul to 5 for the same reason, with the same result. Edwards came in at 6 and also failed. Kieron Pollard came in and smashed the ball in his 38* though, and when Gayle was out, Holder held up an end.

Series State - West Indies have won the series and lead 4-0 with 1 match to play.
Batting Award - Chris Gayle - 79, in quickfire style.
Bowling Award - Jason Holder - Took 3 good wickets in the early part of his spell.

Secondly, a match-winning innings that failed to win the match.



Despite numbers 2, 3 and 4 scoring 15 between them, the New Zealanders were 77/3 by the time they were gone due to the aggressive nature of Guptill's innings. The lower order picked up valuable runs for them again, with de Boorder again looking in prime form.

We were soon 16/2, as both openers went for single figures. Then, still at number 4, came Shane Burton, who produced what will probably turn out to be the innings of his life, knowing my luck. It was not only his first ODI hundred, but his first List A hundred of any kind, and came at the good pace of 125 balls. Apart from Shiv's 49 however, he lacked support, and only one other batsman (Paul, 11) made double digits. We crumbled from 153/3 to 208 all out, with Burton trying to farm the strike but failing to protect some of his lower order colleagues.

Series State - West Indies win the series 4-1.
Batting Award - Shane Burton - Let's hope that's the first of many in a West Indies shirt.
Bowling Award - Jason Holder - Again, a dangerous customer.

OKAY. Brilliant. 2 T20Is against the black caps. SQUAD TIME.

C. Gayle (OASP)
L. Simmons (OK)
S. Chanderpaul (BAT) (C)
K. Edwards (BAT)
Darren Bravo (BAT)
S. Burton (BAT)
K. Pollard (ALL)
D. Smith (ALL)
Dwayne Bravo (ALL)
R. Hinds (ASP)
A. Russell (ALL)
J. Holder (SEAM)
D. Bishoo (SPIN)
K. Roach (SEAM)
S. Narine (SPIN)

Okay, it's much the same as the ODI squad, but I forgot the exact changes . Anyway, Edwards, Hinds, Smith and Roach miss out from that 15. I was going to play Roach for Holder, but I realised Holder's domestic T20 strike rate is 9.53. Yeah, 9.53.

[Imager36]

A good pitch, but probably our best ODI batting performance to date.



Our innings had almost everything as we lost the toss - a slow start after an early wicket, a good, almost run a ball innings from an opener, and some brilliant late order hitting. All it was missing was twin centuries from the late hitter and the opener. Gayle was out early, and Shiv and Edwards struggled to get the ball off the square in their innings. Simmons had no such problems, and after Bravo had come in, went for 89 from 96, when a hundred was deserved. Darren played second fiddle to Pollard for a while, who managed 46 from 28, and then exploded himself, eventually getting 99 from 67. Ryan Hinds got 37 from 27 unbeaten at the death, and Russell hit a 6 in his 2 ball innings.

We got 2 early wickets to almost secure the match, but Jesse Ryder hit a phenomenal 107 from 87 balls to put them back in it. No-one else was up to the task though, really, and so Russell's 3 and the same for Hinds took us to victory.

Series State - West Indies win the series 3-0, with 2 matches to play.
Batting Award - Bravo/Simmons - Played equally important parts, and were both seriously unlucky to miss out on tons.
Bowling Award - Ryan Hinds - Dangerous, and limited the runs a little more than others.

Team News - Well, the series is over, and you know how I like playing around. Therefore, Burton, Paul, Bishoo and Pascal come in for Darren, Hinds, Russell and Narine.

[cricfan1]

Can you add information The date on which this match will be played we can know the session

[Imager36]

A stunning century from Pollard and 10 wickets in 30 overs - a simple win.



2 early wickets fell, leaving us 12/2, but an unusually slow partnership between Gayle and Edwards left us in a decent position to attack, but only a small base to fire from. Darren came in and hit 28 from 26, but at the end of his partnership with Kirk, we were 127/4 midway through the 32nd over. Kieron Pollard came in. He faced roughly half of the remaining innings, not particularly hogging the strike, but made a phenomenal 103 not out, including 13 fours and 4 sixes. Edwards fell late in the piece, and none of the tail helped him, but they stuck around just long enough to finish the innings.

On a very tough pitch to bowl on, they had no chance, but they gave it a go and were all out early. Roach took 3, Russell one, Holder was wicketless, and Pollard, Narine and Hinds took 2 each.

Series State - West Indies lead 2-0 with 3 to play.
Batting Award - Kieron Pollard - Bloomin' awesome.
Bowling Award - Kemar Roach - Really set the pace, but Pollard's innings left little to do.

Team News - None at all.

[Imager36]

Back to the New Zealand we knew.



We won the toss, on a good pitch, and set about bowling. BJ Watling went for 2, but Guptill and Williamson put on 61 to put NZ back in a good place. Guptill fell, and Ryder went early, but Taylor helped Kane to put on 99 and leave them 182/3 and then 4. Narine dismissed Kane and then de Boorder and Franklin. Taylor made all the runs he could with the tail, but he was dismissed in the end as Roach ran through the lower order.

We coasted to our total, with Gayle making 40, Shiv getting out for an uncharacteristic 8, and Kirk (44) and Darren (35) completing the job, although Simmons was unlucky to miss out on his century.

Series State - West Indies lead 1-0 with 4 to play.
Batting Award - Lendl Simmons - The best batsman out there today.
Bowling Award - Sunil Narine - 3 wickets for 27 from 10 overs. Very good from the spinner.

Team News - Jason Holder gets the chance to make up for his failings - No changes.

[Imager36]

I swear this isn't the same NZ we played last year. I call foul play.



Won the toss and batted, and made a pitiful 413. We were 45/2 by the time the openers had gone, but a great captain's innings from Kirk and valuable support play from Shiv, Darren and Nash gave us a good total. Kirk was out going for big runs with Roach, and the innings was soon over.

They started adequately, with an opening partnership of 319. All the bowlers charged in, but they were, to be frank, toothless. Only a run out ended it, and we were in trouble again. We made inroads and reduced them to 368/4, but partnerships 5, 6 and 7 produced enough runs to take them to a total they could declare on, about 130 ahead.

We knew we had to win the test, so tried to get to a position about 200 ahead before declaring and challenging NZ. Despite a shaky middle order, we managed it due to Andre Russell and, of course, Lendl Simmons' first test century, 150 not out. I let them both get to their milestones, and then declared with just under 2 sessions left, 214 ahead.

Jason Holder sensed his time had come, and removed the top 3 cheaply, leaving NZ struggling at 39/3. One from Dwayne and 3 from Sunil had them reeling at 142/7 with about an hour left of play. But unlike the NZ we saw last year, and unlike the West Indies we were at home, we let it slip. Ross Taylor was sensational, knocking 80 from 78 balls, and Banks stayed with him to make it a win for NZ.

Series State - New Zealand win 2-0.
Batting Award - Edwards/Simmons - Two big hundreds to give us a chance in the match.
Bowling Award - Holder/Narine - Both of them pulled together to make us think we had a chance in the latter stages of that match. Unfortunately, we didn't.

Next up, 5 ODIs against that same team. Here's the 15 man squad.

C. Gayle (OASP)
L. Simmons (OK)
S. Chanderpaul (BAT) (C)
K. Edwards (BAT)
Darren Bravo (BAT)
S. Burton (BAT)
M. Paul (BAT)
K. Pollard (ALL)
R. Hinds (ASP)
A. Russell (ALL)
J. Holder (SEAM)
D. Bishoo (SPIN)
K. Roach (SEAM)
S. Narine (SPIN)
N. Pascal (SEAM)

Slightly all-rounder light, I'd agree, but all 3 will play most matches. For the first of the ODIs, Burton, Paul, Bishoo and Pascal miss out, leaving Holder to make his ODI début and Simmons to return behind the stumps and topping the order.

[Imager36]

A bore draw.



I played most of this match yesterday, and so won't comment on it in too much detail! We won the toss and batted, soon advancing to 195/1 before both the openers were out. Darren put on 94 with Shiv, and Nash put on 88 with Dwayne to move us beyond 400 and make us think we were in with a chance.

We got Guptill out for 12, but the next partnership was worth 203 runs in total. 2 ducks followed as 3 wickets fell for no runs, but Brownlie and Taylor made sure we would not have a first innings lead.

Our second innings started poorly, and at 147/4, we were in a sticky patch. Luckily, the combined forces of Darren and Nash put on 202, and we were quite definitely out of it. By the time we were bowled out, we'd just got a lead of over 300 and had 2 sessions to bowl the Zealanders out.

The seamers took 2 wickets each, but Taylor held out for the black caps.

Series State - New Zealand lead the series 1-0 with 1 to play.
Batting Award - Gayle/Shiv/Darren/Nash - Not often you get 4 centuries on one side, but they all deserve accolades.
Bowling Award - Dwayne Bravo - 6 wickets in all, a good performance after a bad run.

Team News - Roach comes in for Bishoo in a straight seamer/spinner swap.