The Golden Isles - A Third Time Lucky West Indies Story

[Imager36]

When I declared with 4 sessions to go, I was not expecting this...



Start at the start. We won the toss and batted, and batted rather well. The openers put on 96 for the first wicket, and Barrington reached his first test 50 exactly, before hewing one to mid off. A couple more quick wickets followed, and when we were left at 154/5, we got the feeling this tour might be difficult. Two brilliant partnerships involving the wicket keeper put a stop to those thoughts though. First up, he put on 117 with new number 6 Shane Burton, which was actually the highest Test partnership for the 6th wicket I've had on this game! After Burton had departed for 75, Browne put on another 120 with Kev Stoute! In this partnership, Stoute was definitely in control, and the aggressor on so many fronts. Browne's innings was dogged, but he could not hold it together for quite long enough, as he was caught at mid off off the débutante 19 year old medium pacer Siwar de Seram. Brathwaite held around a bit while Stoute piled on more runs, but Matthew and Narine got out in double quick time, and Stoute was left stranded, also falling just short of his first test century.

Their first innings also went well for us. Despite a hundred partnership between Faumi and Mathews early on, we managed to get them down to 148/4, and never really looked back from there. Jabbar also resisted for a fair while, but was eventually caught behind off the bowling of Matthew, and the tail crumbled to a combination of Alford and Narine to leave us with a lead of over 150, and a good chance at victory!

Barath fell early for 3, but Barrington (25), Bravo (51) and Alford (31) battled back to keep us ticking over, and well in front of the Lankans. When Shane Burton was out after what was a rather fun innings of 15, the keeper came in and helped us to buckle down again. An unbeaten partnership of 89 between him and Captain Kirk was exactly what we needed, and as Browne reached his 3rd test 50 on the stroke of tea on the 4th day, we decided to declare, with the lead having nudged over 400.

What happened next was... ridiculous. The openers put on 116, followed by another 144 from that Faumi/Mathews combination. Just when we thought we might be making breakthroughs, as Faumi and Serasinghe fell quickly, Mathews put on another century partnership, this time 104 with Perera. Brathwaite got his wicket eventually, and Stoute removed Jabbar, but it was all too late and Sri Lanka had gobbled up 400 like we'd asked them to chase 150.

Series State	Sri Lanka lead the series 1-0 with 1 to play.
Batting Award	Max Browne - An unlikely batting hero, but just under 150 runs in the test.
Bowling Award	Sunil Narine - He took 5 wickets. Yeah. Best of a bad bunch of figures.
Team News	On a dustier pitch, Imran Khan replaces Merv Matthew.

[Imager36]

The first 3 innings were pretty much the same. Luckily, the 4th differed.



We won the toss (again) and chose to bat (again). Barrington fell early this time, but Barath managed an uptempo 51 before he, too, departed, leaving Darren Bravo in the teens and the score on 72/2. Alford made it only as far as 20, Edwards improved on that and reached 38, in a partnership of 69, but it was Burton and Browne, alongside the imposing Bravo, who helped us to a really good score. Burton's aggressive 46 helped put the Sri Lankan bowlers on the back foot, and then Browne's 70 just frustrated them a little longer. Darren Bravo was eventually out for 149, his 9th test match ton, but Browne fought on with the tail, and dragged us over 420.

Wickets, thankfully, came regularly enough in the Sri Lankan innings. They batted well enough, of course, but the 100+ partnerships were gone, instead replaced by a string of 2 figure ones, including a majestic 78 between... you guessed it, Faumi and Mathews. Keeper Gavan Jabbar was once again in resistive mood, with his 78 helping keep Sri Lanka in the game, but he didn't get the support he needed to get to a century, or close to our score, so we once again had a first innings lead, although this time a lower one of around 80.

We attacked from the off, with 7 sessions left in the match, but apart from Barath's top order 44, struggled to get going and lost wickets. 133/5. Burton out. Browne to the crease again. Another 2nd innings partnership with Edwards, again raising the bar in terms of 6th wicket partnerships in the career, of 117 runs. Browne with another 50, exactly, his 5th in 12 tests and his 4th in 4 innings on this tour. Now there is form for you. All of which meant that, after a couple of smacks from Stoute, we were able to declare at Tea on Day 4 again, this time setting a target of just over 350.

Thankfully, history failed to repeat itself any further. Wickets fell early to spin, and after a fantastic partnership between Perera and Silva, the second new ball was on hand, and Stoute and Brathwaite disposed of the rest of the order within 7 overs. Series drawn. No points won, no points lots, plenty of confidence gained.

Series State	West Indies and Sri Lanka draw the series 1-1.
Batting Award	Darren Bravo - 149 in the first innings, helped set up the win.
Bowling Award	Sunil Narine - Only 5 wickets in the match, but all of them top order scalps.

So, on we move again... this time, a 3 match ODI series against Sri Lanka, and first up, a tour match against Singha. Squad follows. It shows our settled batting line-up and unsettled bowling pack.

A. Barath (O)
L. Simmons (O/K)
Darren Bravo (BAT) (C)
K. Pollard (BAT)
S. Burton (BAT)
M. Paul (BAT)
M. Alford (ALL)
D. Benjamin (ALL)
K. Stoute (ALL)
A. Russell (ALL)
I. Khan (ASP)
C. Brathwaite (SEAM)
M. Matthew (SEAM)
K. McClean (SEAM)
S. Narine (SPIN)

And for the tour match against Singha, Bravo, Stoute, Khan and Brathwaite miss out, and are almost guaranteed picks for the first ODI. The batting order is weird and complex, and Barath once again captains the West Indians XI.

[Imager36]

Rushed through this a bit, but won easily enough.



Things we learnt from that tour match:-

• Only Matthew and Benji from the 6 bowlers were expensive.
• Singha were quite a poor team, with only 1 international, and him having played only 6 matches.
• Kieron Pollard helped himself to get back among the runs.
• Burton was playing nicely until Pollard ran him out!
• Pollard and Burton put on a partnership of 111.

That's all. Changes for the first ODI are that Paul, Benji, McClean and Russell drop out for the returning players. Could be fun.

[Imager36]

A shoddy lower order batting performance that probably cost us a match.



We lost the toss and were put in to bat first up. Simmons and Barath could only manage 31 as an opening partnership, with Simmons getting 20 of those before he was out. Darren Bravo fell for 2 to reinforce our misery, but the next partnership involved Kieron Pollard and Barath, with Pollard decidedly in his shell, scoring 22 from 40 balls, and Barath making the rest of the partnership of 75! He hasn't been himself this year so far, Kieron, and even after that tour match performance looks shaky. Shane Burton only made 1, but Mike Alford came out with purpose and started hitting the ball cleanly. He and Barath put on 54 nicely, but this came to an abrupt end when Barath was run out for 96 from 113 balls, agonisingly 4 short of his second ODI hundred. Alford pressed on though, alongside Stoute and Khan, but fell in the 44th over, 44 from 55 balls his score. The lower order were abysmal, and the bottom five's scores added together were 13. With Narine not out. Dreadful, if I'm honest.

Faumi was out first this time, but Mathews still managed a mammoth partnership, this time 116 with Perera. After this had been ended, wickets fell to Narine and Brathwaite, but it was somewhat too little too late, as they cruised to victory with 11 balls to spare.

Series State	Sri Lanka lead 1-0 with 2 to play.
Batting Award	Adrian Barath - 96 from an opener is always a good set for the rest of the team.
Bowling Award	Sunil Narine - 2/25 from 10 overs. Pretty good, kept us in the game for sure.
Team News	Expensive for 2 games in a row, Matthew is replaced with McClean.

[Imager36]

Much better - It's like a different team, really.



We won the toss this time, so we got to bowl first, and it paid immediate dividends when Faumi was caught LBW first ball by Brathwaite. After 3 good partnerships though, 2 of which involved Chandimal. Then it went from 137/3 to 137/8 in a brilliant period of play that really won the match for us, including a team hattrick off the bowling of Imran Khan. From there it was disappointing that we weren't able to get rid of them cheaply, but eventually those last two wickets fell and we still had well under 200 to chase.

And chase it we did. The opening partnership was worth 76 (Barath 44, Simmons 38), and despite a hiccup then reducing us to a dangerous 103/3, an unbroken stand of 79 between Pollard and Burton (43* each) led us over the line.

Series State	West Indies and Sri Lanka are level at 1-1 with 1 to play.
Batting Award	Kieron Pollard - Good to see him back, scored his mid 40s score quicker than the others.
Bowling Award	Imran Khan - Not the more economical of the 3 wicket bowlers, but his 3 wicket maiden won the match, all told.
Team News	None needed, none made.

[Imager36]

An easyish win from a fairly poor position.



We made a poor start. Despite McClean taking both the openers wickets inside the first 10 overs, the second ten were less successful... Much less so. They went for a massive 85 runs, with Alford and Stoute taking the majority of the damage. After those dreadful times, we put on both of the spinners, and they were instant successes! In their TWENTY overs, they went for a combined total of FIFTY-THREE runs. And there were 3 wickets with that, as well. McClean and Brathwaite came back for the final few overs, and did well to limit the opposition to under 5 runs an over for the innings.

We started slowly, and still not that well, with Simmons falling cheaply, and Bravo too. Pollard hit 20 from a partnership of 23 with Barath, but was then caught on his crease but Wijesena. Then began though, la resistance. Barath and Burton put on a partnership of 63, but even when Barath eventually fell for 67 from 87 balls, we needed about 7 an over. Alford was out first ball, which didn't help, but then we really started. A couple of cameos by Stoute and Khan put us back in contention, and it was the partnership between Burton and Brathwaite that won us the match. 68, unbeaten, including 36* from 28 balls from Carlos. Burton's 71* came from 87 balls, and his composure in tricky situations won us the match.

Series State	West Indies win the series 2-1.
Batting Award	Shane Burton - Top scored, and took us to victory.
Bowling Award	Imran Khan - 2/23 from his 10. Top notch.
Squad News	No changes made for the 2 T20Is
Team News	Matthew & Paul in for McClean & Barath. Alford opens, Paul down at 6.

[Imager36]

A fairly easy win, by T20 standards.



We won the toss and got to bowl first - and a wicket first ball set us on our way. With brilliant bowling from all four seamers, we managed to reduce them 46/4. A good, but slow partnership between Serasinghe and Silva managed to resurrect the innings against the spin bowlers, but the seamers returned to finish the job off well and keep it below 140.

We started badly, with Simmo and Alford getting out for 7 and 11 respectively. Darren and Pollard though put on 56 to get us right back in front. Only needing about 6 an over after Darren's cameo (31 from 17), Shane Burton came in and hit 15 from 12, and Mike Paul got 17 from 13 balls unbeaten as we waltzed to victory with 15 balls to spare.

Series State	West Indies lead the series 1-0 with 1 to play.
Batting Award	Kieron Pollard - His 31 from 17 put us well in front of the run rate and won.
Bowling Award	Mike Alford - 2/21 from his 4 overs... he's not normally that good!
Team News	None, good performance all round!

Another easyish victory was recorded, after a great bowling performance.



Again we started brilliantly, with 2 wickets each from Brathwaite and one for Mike Alford leaving Sri Lanka totally reeling at 29/5. A partnership of 32 between Silva and Prassad at least threatened to revive them a little bit, but the last few wickets fell quickly to to Narine, and the last to Alford to stamp them out rather for 87.

He was, however, out to his first ball, and Bravo to his second, which left us badly placed at 5/2. Chasing the low total though, we had time to rebuild, and partnerships between Simmons and Pollard and Burton made sure we got over the line in one piece... well, after they'd all been out alongside Paul.

Series State	West Indies win the series 2-0.
Batting Award	None awarded... the bowling went so well no-one had to bat well though!
Bowling Award	Matthew/Alford/Narine - First multi-award for a while, but they all deserve it. Economical and deadly.

So next up, the West Indies are off to Australia. First up, we play 3 test matches, and here is the 18 man squad that will contest that series...

A. Barath (O)
S. Barrington (O)
L. Simmons (O/K)
S. Burton (O/BAT)
Darren Bravo (BAT) (VC)
M. Alford (ALL)
K. Edwards (BAT) (C)
M. Paul (BAT)
R. Sarwan (BAT)
D. Benjamin (ALL)
M. Browne (K)
K. Stoute (ALL)
C. Brathwaite (ALL)
I. Khan (ASP)
D. Sammy (SEAM)
M. Matthew (SEAM)
K. McClean (SEAM)
S. Narine (SPIN)

Okay, our first test is the Boxing Day test, so that works rather well, doesn't it? I'll probably play it tomorrow, but still. Here is your XI for that match.

A. Barath
S. Burton
D. Bravo
M. Alford
K. Edwards (C)
M. Paul
M. Browne (K)
K. Stoute
C. Brathwaite
K. McClean
S. Narine

So a suprisingly late test match début for Mike Paul, who at the age of 25, has played 46 limited over matches for us and has an FC average of almost 41 (which is actually very good in the West Indies). He is also in form at the moment, so we shall see how he does batting at 6.

[Imager36]

Yeah... this game annoyed me. I won't do a report because I played it ages ago, but I'll give some arbitrary awards!

Series State	Australia lead the series 1-0 with 2 to play
Batting Award	Adrian Barath - Cracking first innings performance
Bowling Award	Kev McClean - Nice of him to turn up for their first innings.
Team News	A test without a wicket doesn't cut the mustard. Brathwaite out for Matthew.

[Imager36]

And as soon as I posted that... this happened. After the first innings, we were in control... then they had a third wicket 378 partnership and it was all over.

Series State	Australia win the series 2-0 with one match to play
Batting Award	Darren Bravo - Only man to make a good score in either innings.
Bowling Award	Kev McClean - Not his best performance, but 7 wickets is decent.
Team News	The same XI completes the series.

I rushed the final test to get it over with, but it was promising. Matthew was injured in our first innings, but Alford stepped up his overs and wickets to bring his career average back below 40.

Series State	Australia win the series 3-0
Batting Award	Kirk Edwards - Captain Kirk top scored in both innings.
Bowling Award	Mike Alford - Close between him and Stoute, but he gets it as I favour him.

So now, we play 2 T20Is against the Aussies before an interminable ODI tournament. Here's the squad for the T20s as I've forgotten what it usually looks like.

K. Powell (O)
C. Gayle (OASP)
L. Simmons (OK)
Darren Bravo (BAT) (C)
K. Pollard (ALL)
S. Burton (BAT/O)
M. Paul (BAT)
Dwayne Bravo (ALL)
D. Benjamin (ALL)
M. Alford (ALL)
G. Maynard (K)
K. Stoute (ALL)
I. Khan (SPIN)
C. Brathwaite (SEAM)
S. Narine (SPIN)

Indeed, experimental. Gayle is recalled after a long absence at the age of 36 to add life to our top order and a spin bowling option, Kieran Powell comes into the T20 reckoning off the back of a very strong domestic season and Graham Maynard gives me a solid wicketkeeping option with Simmons failing with the bat at the moment anyway. Mervin Matthew is injured for 3 weeks and doesn't make the squad. Darren Bravo takes back the captaincy.

Simmons, Burton, Dwayne and Khan miss out, giving Powell his return and Maynard his Windies début, batting at 8.

[Imager36]

Not the great comeback I was hoping for, to be honest. Another thrashing.



We lost the toss and were put into bat, which looked a great decision as we teetered at 16/2, both of the openers out. Bravo, Pollard and Paul did their best to revive the innings, but were methodical about it and left us struggling in terms of run rate. Maynard made a quick unbeaten 13 to drag us above 6 an over, but the total didn't seem nearly enough.

Indeed it wasn't. Australia had no problem breezing to the total. Shane Watson was out for 7 though, which was nice.

Series State	Australia lead the series 1-0 with 1 to play.
Batting Award	Mike Paul - Top scored at just over a run a ball. Best of a bad bunch.
Bowling Award	Carlos Brathwaite - 1/15 from 2.4 overs. Quite good bowling.
Team News	Chris Gayle drops out for Imran Khan. Mike Alford moves up to open.

And a more promising match to brace us for the long triangular series.



It was, once again, a case of being put in to bat, and then the fragile batting order really hurting us. Powell and Alford started well with a quick partnership of 35, Mike scoring 19 from 9 balls to start the innings positively. Darren Bravo was run out soon after though, which made us slow down. Another good partnership, this time 36 between Powell and Pollard made us feel in with a shout in the game. After these two though, we suffered a large ongoing collapse, with Maynard scoring 30* from 22 balls but no-one able to stick with him for long enough to give us a decent total.

They opened with a strong but slow partnership of 61, but Imran Khan looked dangerous from the second he came on and took 3 wickets to reduce Australia to 86/3. Warner and Steve Smith unfortunately managed to ride out the pressure period with a partnership of 29, and even as as Brathwaite and Stoute got wickets at the end, it was unlikely to ever contain a much improved Australian side from when I faced them at the start of the year.

Series State	Australia win the series 2-0.
Batting Award	Graham Maynard - Played well and almost took us to a reasonable total.
Bowling Award	Imran Khan - Came on and suddenly made us feel like we had a chance in the game.
Squad Changes	Powell, Gayle, Dwayne out, Barath, McClean and Hinds in.

The tournament is a quadruple round robin between us, Australia and India (who we then face in India, making the results of this pointless for us but not them!) First up is a match against the home side, the Aussies. The team is... Barath, Burton, Bravo (C), Pollard, Alford, Benjamin, Maynard (K), McClean, Khan, Brathwaite, Narine. Trust in Maynard!

(I'm going to do 2 matches a time through this mentally long tournament too.)

[Imager36]

A much better showing. I thought we were going to win it for a large proportion of the game... but they Australia-d us.



They lost the toss and we made them bat, but they got off to a good start. Despite the fact that we took a couple of early-ish wickets, they managed almost 110 from the first 20 overs, and then Burns, Nevil, Clarke and Hughes set about extending their advantage. Luckily for us, everyone got a bit stuck against Sunil Narine, who conceded 27 runs from his 10 overs, meaning they'd slowed to well under 5 an over after 35 overs had passed. The Clarke/Hughes partnership was worth a quick 67, but their last 6 wickets fell for 25 runs to undo a lot of that good work, albeit leaving them with a good total.

Barath was out early, but Burton and Bravo worked on making me like them again in their partnership of 94 before Bravo was LBW for 47. Unfortunately, this was proceeded by an inevitable but nonetheless crushing collapse. Pollard scored a quick 19 before Alford was out for 1 and the hero Burton fell for 82 from 105 balls, a great effort from the makeshift opener. Maynard made 29, but the allrounders failed him in terms of their batting and we fell 20 runs short.

Series State	Australia 1 - 0 West Indies
Batting Award	Shane Burton - No questions asked. He needed a score and got one.
Bowling Award	Sunil Narine - 1/27 from 10 overs is a good effort, and Benjamin was too expensive to win this.
Team News	No changes for the first India match.

This match literally couldn't have been any closer.



We put India in to bat, and their first two partnerships were worth 159. These partnerships were both slow though, and as a player I was thankful that they decided to try and keep wickets in hand, knowing that their top 3 batsmen, Mukund, Reddy and Kohli, were by far their most dangerous. As expected, when they tried to accelerate, they lost wickets and ended up going almost nowhere. Brathwaite and Benjamin finished off the innings expertly.

As usual when I think I'm doing well, next something went badly wrong. We were soon down to 8/2, and after Burton had stuck around briefly and Pollard had done what he does best - smacked a few and then smacked one to a fielder - we were 55/4... not ideally placed to win the match. Mike Alford went for an uncharacteristic dig-in, and was 6 from about 25 balls, but up the other end his partner Benjamin was stockpiling the runs and making sure our position was becoming gradually tenable. In the end, the pair put on 108, with Alford speeding up to reach 41 from 72 balls. Graham Maynard came in, and things remained largely as they had been, with the required rate nudging 6 and staying there pretty well. Maynard was out for 20, and McClean went for his second golden duck of this 2 match old series, but only requiring 9 from the last 9 balls I felt we would be safe. We scored 2 from the next 3, and then Benjamin reached his first List A hundred with a single. He couldn't quite bring up victory though... Khan faced a dot ball, and needing 3 from the last, Dean only managed to sneak 2 to earn us a tie and our first point of the triangular.

Series State	West Indies 0 - 0 India
Batting Award	Dean Benjamin - I have to say I wasn't expecting an innings of such class and composure from him. Good on the boy.
Bowling Award	Carlos Brathwaite - Least runs, most wickets. Simple, really.
Team News	Batting order shuffle. Maynard goes to open with Barath, Burton slides down to a hopefully more to his liking 3, with Pollard at 4 and the under-performing captain at 5.

Edit - The morning after, I realise how stupid that batting order shuffle looks... "Ooh, Benjamin can bat! Let's put him down at 7 where he'll never have the chance to build an innings again!" Never mind. I will keep it.

[Imager36]

A few bowling-based worldies occurred.



We won the toss once more and put them into bat. This time, the tactic really worked. We got stuck in and never let them settle, Brathwaite grabbing Watson early and then first change Alford getting the other 4 of the top 5 in one of his finest bowling performances. With those batsmen gone, Narine had a fairly easy job keeping the run rate down as the Australians tried to rebuild, but McClean and Brathwaite finishing the innings off failed to get the last wickets quickly, the last partnership being worth 24 and giving Australia a sniff.

We made a solid start with an opening partnership of 40, but Maynard fell for 21 and was followed shortly after by Burton. Barath held his end though, and he and Pollard added 54 at above the required pace for the third wicket. Pollard then swiped across the line and was out LBW. Darren Bravo stuck around for 27 painful balls for his 7, but Barath got over his 50 in partnership with Alford (28* off 26), and the young allrounder saw us over the line with help from his comrade Benjamin.

Series State	Australia 1 - 1 West Indies
Batting Award	Adrian Barath - Boring but necessary.
Bowling Award	Mike Alford - Got the important wickets that kept them to a low total.
Team News	NO CHANGES!

A slightly more disappointing match to bring us back down to earth.



I wrote up a match report yesterday evening but it was somehow deleted. Suffice to say, we did not play especially well.

Series State	India 1 - 0 West Indies
Batting Award	Darren Bravo - He did his best to get some form, but we were unlikely to ever get that target.
Bowling Award	Sunil Narine - Economical, 2 wickets, lovely.
Team News	Benjamin and Maynard swap batting order positions. Stoute comes in for McClean.

[Imager36]

A poor batting performance and a poor bowling performance.



When did Darren Bravo go from being the only one who wasn't scoring to the only one who is?

Series State	Australia 2 - 1 West Indies
Batting Award	Darren Bravo - Scored some runs.
Bowling Award	Sunil Narine - Took some wickets.
Team News	Paul replaces Pollard. Batting order changes to Barath, Burton, Alford, Bravo, Paul, Benjamin, Maynard, etc. I'll try anything, me.

Not that it'll work, mind...



Another sorry tale. India got off to a wonderful start, progressing to 110 from the first 20 overs for the loss of only 1 wicket. Reddy and Kohli were both out soon after this though to the spin, and those spinners managed to keep the run rate incredibly far down, conceding only 58 runs from 20 overs between them. They took wickets too, but Jadeja remained, and punished us with a fine half century against the returning quicker bowlers.

Barath was out for 0 in the first over, but Burton and Alford built a base and then started to hit from it. Unfortunately, the middle order of Bravo, Paul and Benjamin all failed and after that we didn't have a hope. Maynard and Stoute battled bravely, but it was ultimately futile.

Series State	India 2 - 0 West Indies
Batting Award	Shane Burton - Top run scorer in the match.
Bowling Award	Narine/Khan - The spinners seriously constricted India.
Team News	No changes.

So to get through to the final we need to win both our remaining matches and hope Australia lose to India in their final match. No problem.

[Imager36]

And we were knocked out with a thoroughly disappointing defeat.



As soon as we put them in to bat, we were having issues. Warner and Watson put on 134 for the opening stand, and we had no real response to that. Not even the spin could really contain the pair, although it got a wicket and those continued to tumble despite the rapid rate of scoring. Alford and Brathwaite finished the innings with wickets, but cameos from Nevill and Mitch Marsh got the Aussies to a very good score.

Unfortunately, we couldn't keep up with the scoring rate and keep wickets from falling. Paul and Benjamin's 79 partnership was certainly worth watching for some lovely attacking strokes from both players, but we were never in with a chance of reaching the target.

Series State	Australia 3 - 1 West Indies West Indies fail to qualify for the finals.
Batting Award	Mike Paul - Showed some backbone and was unbeaten on 49 when the tail fell.
Bowling Award	Mike Alford - Not economical, but managed 4 wickets.
Team News	No changes.

And this match went far better.



We batted first, and Barath made a solid start, supported by a 25 from Alford and a slow 15 from Darren B, we made it to 97/2, but a collapse left us feeling glum at 126/6. Thankfully, a combative partnership of 71 between Maynard (29*) and Stoute (40 from 36) led us almost to the 200 mark, before the last 4 wickets fell in 4 balls to Irfan Pathan.

We knew the only chance we had was to go out and try to take wickets. We managed it, and each of the 6 bowlers grabbed at least one for their tallies. A 50 partnership between Jadeja and Karthik threatened to overthrow us, and Ashwin gave it a go, but Brathwaite and Alford finished the innings well and we won feeling that we might have even without the last two wickets as the batsmen were struggling to score.

Series State	India 2 - 1 West Indies
Batting Award	Kevin Stoute - His unexpected 40 from 36 balls was great to watch and gave us a chance.
Bowling Award	Carlos Brathwaite - 4/29 from almost 10 overs, also finished their innings off.
Final Table	India won the finals 2-1.

And with that, we move on to a 5 match ODI tour of... you guessed it, India. Before the 2 T20 'warm-ups' against them and then the T20 World Cup in India! For the ODI series, the recovered Mervin Matthew comes into the squad in place of the unused Ryan Hinds and on-form 29 year old opener Dolston Tuit makes his squad début in place of Lendl Simmons. In the actual XI, Tuit replaces Paul, with Bravo reverting to 3, Burton 4 and Alford 5, and Matthew coming in for Stoute.


Dolston Tuit

[Imager36]

Not exactly a convincing start to our ODI series.



They got away from us early doors, without us being able to take out the top 3 quickly, and all of them made half-centuries, Mukund especially impressing of course with his brilliant 112. The spinners had economy rates of 5 and above, nothing quite went right for us in the innings and India raced to 254/7 despite a poor end to the innings.

We never really stood a chance. Tuit wasted balls on debut, but it's unfair to blame him for the loss because we were never scoring enough runs. Burton was the only man to put up any real resistance.

Series State	India lead 1-0 with 4 to play
Batting Award	Shane Burton - Slim pickings.
Bowling Award	Carlos Brathwaite - 4/48 ain't bad.
Team News	Alford out, Keiron Pollard in.

Well, I think we improved a bit...



We managed to keep Indian wickets falling regularly during their innings, but they always seemed to manage to just wrestle back enough control to stay ahead of the game. The bowling unit as a whole worked fairly well, in truth, and despite a late surge from Uday Kaul (31), we felt like we had restricted them to a somewhat gettable total.

We started with a fairly decent 58 partnership and took Praveen Kumar apart a little, which was nice for the oft sedate openers. Darren Bravo came in and played well, but no-one could stay with him, Burton and Pollard (0 from 0, run out!) came and went and whilst Benjamin managed 33 from 32 balls when the required run rate was even above that, the bottom 5 could only manage to face 13 balls between them and we were all out a decent way short.

Series State	India lead 2-0 with 3 to play...
Batting Award	Darren Bravo - Led the way with the bat, rather.
Bowling Award	Brathwaite/Benjamin/Khan -All with incredibly similar figures.
Team News	Maynard the keeper makes way for Alford in a drastic move. Renowned catcher Pollard takes the gloves.