The Golden Isles - A Third Time Lucky West Indies Story

[Imager36]

5 balls to spare this time! Much better.



We reduced Bangladesh to 31/3, Shakib, Islam and Mahmudullah managed to rebuild the innings, and partnerships between these 3 took the total to 188/5. Another collapse reduced them to 194/9, but a last wicket partnership of 18 helped them escape a score below 200.

Barath fell early, but partnerships between Gayle and Chanderpaul (88) and Chanderpaul and Darren (92) took us 30 runs away from victory with only 2 wickets down. Needing these at around 6 an over, however, Chanders got out, and was closely followed by Sarwan, Smith and Simmons. Andre Russell was again the man to be there at the end, ending on 12 from 7 balls, and Darren's not out 58 came from 68 balls.

Series State - West Indies lead 2-1 with 2 to play.
Batting Award - Shivnarine Chanderpaul - Runs runs runs, although not in particularly quick time.
Bowling Award - Dwayne Smith - 2 matches in a row for this award for the steady right-armer. 3/35 from 10 including 2 maidens is pretty good in anyone's books, and he implemented the late order collapse of the Bangladeshis.

Team News - No changes again.

[Imager36]

We won! Easily! Oh my!



Having lost the toss we were forced to bat first for the first time in what seems like ages, but that appeared to kick us into life, and gave us a really good total on a docile pitch. Barath went in the second over for 1, but Chanderpaul and Gayle then put on the partnership that made the match, with 199 splendidly accumulated runs, before Gayle fell for a tantalising 98 from 101 balls. Chanderpaul's 104 came, surprisingly, in not too many more balls, taking 119. Chanderpaul was out without having added another run. Darren and Sarwan put on a quick-fire 36 before Sarwan fell for 24 from 27. Smith got a first-baller, but Simmons showed his use down the order with 34 from 21 before he fell and the innings ended.

The Bangladeshis needed 6 an over, and they put up a good fight of it, making sure we bowled them out rather than just meandering. Tamim's innings was the most significant, but if anyone would have stayed with him, they might have had a chance. They didn't however, and Sunil Narine indulged in a bit of average-lowering.

Series State - West Indies win the series 3-1, 1 to play.
Batting Award - Chanders/Gayle - As shown in the Bangla innings with Tamim, it was the partnership that was the most crucial factor toward our high total.
Bowling Award - Sunil Narine - I don't care who it's against, 6/23 are not the bowling figures of a player who is underrated.

Team News - With the series won, and nothing riding on the final match, Jermaine Blackwood makes his international bow in place of Darren Bravo, and Nelon Pascal is played in front of the rested Roach.

[Imager36]

I'll speed through this match because it's not important and I want to go to bed.



Hom was the only impressive player in their innings, and Russell was by far the pick of our bowlers. The chase was fairly regulation, and young Blackwood made 11 from 25 before being bowled by Haque, and to be honest looked a little out of his depth.

Series State - West Indies win the series 4-1.
Batting Award - Shiv Chanderpaul - Secured the fairly easy victory, with Gayle.
Bowling Award - Andre Russell - Really stepped up to the plate with Roach out of the team.

Which means it is time for the...

Series Awards

Batting Award - Shiv Chanderpaul and Chris Gayle - These two were miles ahead of the rest in terms of runs scored, but were pretty much inseparable from each other in terms of both that and strike rate. Simmons deserves an honourable mention, averaging over 40 batting at 6 and 7.

Bowling Award - Kemar Roach - He and Russell both took 11 wickets, but he took them in 1 fewer match, which really gives him the edge when picking here. Even where spin should have been dominant, the quick guys did the real damage up top.

And the squad for the following 2 T20Is against the same opponent? Rampaul comes in for Pascal in the only change to the squad. Blackwood stays for yet more technique training.

Can I go to bed now? Great... thanks.

[GrahamB]

Can I go to bed now? Great... thanks.

No - you're addicted. You should be falling asleep at the computer!

[Imager36]

No - you're addicted. You should be falling asleep at the computer!

Haha, when I started the match I was talking to people on Facebook... then they all disappeared and I was all alone, but I felt the job was not done and so made myself finish the match.

Blackwood, Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Rampaul are the 4 to miss out on the first match, with Barath and Gayle opening.

[Imager36]

Last wicket, last ball again... ICC really is throwing up some tasty finishes this year!



Lost the toss, but would have bowled anyway. Tamim went early, as did Hom, run out. Siddique and Islam soon followed to make the score 39/4. Shakib, Mahmudullah and Ghosh rebuilt the innings, but were dismissed near the end, with the rate not accelerating or decelerating much at all during the innings.

Barath and Chanders both fell early for us, but we felt the 62 partnership between Gayle and Darren looked to have us back in control of the match, sitting at 80/2 in the 12th. Still above the run rate, it was a shock when we collapsed as much as we did. Darren, Gayle, Sarwan, Simmons and Russell all fell quickly, and left us reeling at 99/7 after 16, needing 32 from the final 4 overs. 4 runs came off the 17th. 28 from 18 balls needed. Then we had a good over, with 12 runs coming to leave us needing 16 from 12. Unfortunately, the next over was poor, with only 5 runs, as well as the wicket of Dwayne Smith, the remaining batsman, for 20. All of a sudden, we needed 11 off the final over. A wide was the first ball, and a single the real first ball, but then Narine was removed, leaving us needing 9 from 4 balls. Two scrambled singles followed. 7 from 2? Number 11 on strike? No chance. Next ball, Roach outside edged a ball wider than slip would have been, and wide of 3rd man, to leave us needing 3 from 1 ball to win. He hit a beautiful on drive, and won a very very tight T20 match.

Series State - West Indies lead 1-0, 1 to play.
Batting Award - Darren Bravo - 35 from 27, got us back on track after a shaky start.
Bowling Award - Chris Gayle - 3/20 from 4 overs. That's enough to get him this gong.

Team News - We lost the last T20 series in Bangladesh, and so this second match gives us the opportunity to go level with Pakistan in 5th in the T20I ranking table. Our first win means we are already clear of India. Blackwood replaces Barath, with Simmons opening and Blackwood at 6.

[Imager36]

It looks comfortable. It wasn't sitting here. I really need new cushions.



Siddique fell early in this second T20I, but Hom and Tamim, the two crucial batsmen for Bangladesh, put on 81 at good pace to assure them of a decent total. The middle order did their job slightly less well than they should have, however, but still managed to drag their team up to a total that would prove challenging, being almost 8 runs an over.

I had my batsmen on full aggression from the 5th over, but Simmons and Gayle would simply not push on. With 6 overs left to go, we needed 73 more runs, and were seriously staring defeat in the face. We got 14 off the next over, which helped, and the 16th went for 10 more. In the 17th, Reza got the wicket of Simmons, and that killed the game for the Bangladeshis. Chanders came in and absolutely smashed the bowling to all parts, giving us the victory with 4 balls to spare.

Series State - West Indies win the series 2-0, and move up to tied 5th in the world rankings.
Batting Award - Shivnarine Chanderpaul - 25 from 10 balls? The man is a monster and won us the game with the minimum of fuss.
Bowling Award - Andre Russell - Superb performance from the big man, as seems the norm.

Next up! An interestingly scheduled ODI tournament in Australia where we will play Sri Lanka and the Aussies in a quadruple round robin. It's interesting, at least. I have no idea how the ranking points work for these, or indeed, if they do. 8 matches, possibly 11, without anything on the line? Eurgh. Never mind, I'll whiz through them.

Squad News - From the Bangla T20 squad, Dwayne Bravo is out and Pascal comes back in. I never really got Dwayne Bravo on this game so far... he can't bat number 7 really, but number 9 would be too low for Russell, and he can't bowl as well as Russell. Russell inevitably wins. Also, having lost to Dwayne Smith for the place of batting all-rounder, and with the news that Sunil Narine is out for 2 weeks, Kieron Pollard is replaced by Ryan Hinds. That really is a blast from the past. We'll see how it goes. Barath, Blackwood, the injured Narine and Pascal miss out from the squad.

[Imager36]

A very disappointing loss to kick things off.



Having lost the toss, we bowled first, but none of the bowlers seemed to be able to gain any level of control. The openers put on 118 for the first partnership, and the second partnership was another 80 runs. We got a couple more wickets, but Chandimal and Samaraweera got them out of their smidgeon of trouble, and made them a score of over 300, and over 6 an over.

We never got going, as I tried to keep up with the run rate. The batsmen weren't particularly special, but they weren't terrible as the score makes them out either, and the bowling, especially from Thushara, was just too good for us.

Series State - We lost our first match.
Batting Award - Ramnaresh Sarwan - Scored more runs than the rest at almost a run a ball. Easy.
Bowling Award - Dwayne Smith - 5 more wickets for the big man. How does he do it? No idea.

Team News - None.

[Chasjs]

Next up! An interestingly scheduled ODI tournament in Australia where we will play Sri Lanka and the Aussies in a quadruple round robin. It's interesting, at least. I have no idea how the ranking points work for these, or indeed, if they do. 8 matches, possibly 11, without anything on the line? Eurgh. Never mind, I'll whiz through them.

I think it only counts the matches against the home side if you're away and all ranking points are worked out from the matches you do play against those teams.

[Imager36]

I think it only counts the matches against the home side if you're away and all ranking points are worked out from the matches you do play against those teams.

Okay, that seems sensible. We lost the last ODI series in Australia 4-0, so I can't do any worse! Actually... scrap that, I can probably still manage 6-1.

So close, but yet, so far.



Won the toss! Harumble! Bowled first, as per protocol. Never looked entirely in control, but took regular wickets to restrict the Aussie scoring. Hinds came to the party, along with Bishoo, and their 20 overs in the middle really clamped the Australians down. Then Smith and Russell returned, triumphant, at the death. Most of the damage was done off Rampaul and Roach in the first 2 powerplays.

Regular wickets fell for us to start with, but a partnership of 75 between Hinds and Chanders steadied the ship, and left us needing a pretty pedestrian run rate for the last 12 overs, with 6 wickets in hand. Unfortunately, they both then got out, followed almost immediately by Smith and Russell, and however hard Rampaul tried to keep himself on strike, it didn't work and Bishoo and Roach both got out to lose us the game by 10 runs.

Series State - In the ODI series, 1-0 to Australia with 3 (or 6) to play. In terms of the triangular, the Aussies beat the Lankans to leave them top of the table and us bottom.
Batting Award - Shivnarine Chanderpaul - The glue holding the limited overs teams together at the moment.
Bowling Award - Devendra Bishoo - What he did in the middle overs was arguably more important than the role of Russell and Smith at the death.

Team News - My new tactic is to have faith in Ryan Hinds. This involves dropping Rampaul in favour of Blackwood (why not? Barath hasn't exactly sparkled!) and expecting Hinds to bowl his full complement. Sri Lanka again up next.

[Imager36]

Sri Lanka scored less than half the runs they did in our last game? Suspicious to me.



We won the toss and bowled first again. This time, however, that tactic went slightly better. By the time you could blink, Sri Lanka were 32/5, and Russell and Roach had 2 wickets each, with Smith taking the other. Samaraweera and Kapugedara rebuilt their side's innings with the spinners on, but were never able to get on top. Samaraweera was soon out to leave the Lankans 77/6, but Kapugedara dominated partnerships with the tail to give his side's total at least an air of respectability.

Simmons fell very early, making them think they had a chance, but Gayle attacked to take us well ahead of the already unchallenging run rate. When Gayle was out, I sent in Blackwood, to see if he could do anything when the pressure was off. Chanderpaul's 56 came off 125 balls with 5 fours, and Blackwood's 56 came from 82 balls with 6 fours and one six, and was chanceless. The first impressive bit of batting we've seen from the new boy.

Series State - I'll give you the table after the next match, when we've all played 4.
Batting Award - Jermaine Blackwood - 56 not out at good pace, and a talent to watch.
Bowling Award - Russell/Roach - Those first 4 wickets were the thing that won the match for us, so the two of them were equally impressive.

Team News - Unsurprisingly, no change to the line-up. Back to playing Australia.

[Imager36]

Absolute rubbish.



I'm not going to go into great detail. Simmons and Darren were the only players to get more than 20, and none of them ever seemed settled. We never looked like we were in charge, as wickets kept falling.

We had no clue, bowling-wise. That is all. Here's the table.



Series State - We are 2-0 down in the series against the Aussies. The triangular table is above.
Batting Award - Lendl Simmons - Pfft.
Bowling Award - Ryan Hinds - I have to give it to someone, and he was at least economical.

Team News - I... errm... no, no changes.

[Imager36]

Another game which we made nervier than it should have been.



We won the toss again, and bowled first. The batsmen were on top for the first half of the innings, and although they were only going at 4.5 an over, it looked like they would have the resources in hand to accelerate in the final overs. Fortunately for us, however, we took regular wickets in these overs, which meant they eventually crept to the 4.5 an over target they had been looking like completing all the time.

Everything was so easy! We were in control! Gayle and Simmons put on 54 for the first wicket, and Simmons was joined by Chanderpaul to put on 100 for the second. When Simmons eventually got out, we were 154/2, just over two thirds of the way to our victory target, which was still at around 4.5 runs an over. Only 4 mini-partnerships got us over the line from here as Bravo, Sarwan, Blackwood, Hinds and Russell fell cheaply. Dwayne Smith was the man though. He scored 24 from 16 balls, and finished off the innings farming the strike as Bishoo was at the other end. Well batted.

Series State - The Lankans somehow beat the Aussies, so they're still ahead of us on net run rate.
Batting Award - Lendl Simmons - I get bored giving it to Chanderpaul, and I want to celebrate Lendl's brief achievements. And interesting name. Haha. Simmons.
Bowling Award - Andre Russell - 4/43 from 10 overs. The man appears to be a machine in ODI cricket.

Team News - Sunil Narine is back to fitness, and as such replaces the more than capable Hinds.

[Imager36]

Okay... the Aussies aren't as good as I'd have you believe.



Lost the toss, but thankfully got to bowl first anyway. In the first part of their innings, wickets fell consistently, whilst they didn't get enough runs on the board to ever think about consolidating their position. At the start of the 23rd over, they were 64/4. Forrest and Nevill put on 65, but North and the tail could offer little resistance to our spin and, latterly, seam attacks, leading to an unthreatening total of 185.

If we'd failed to get that, I'd have been very disappointed. 2 good players were all we needed, and they came in Gayle, with a sedate 58 from 101 balls, and Darren Bravo, who thrashed us over the line despite the rest of the top/middle order going missing, with 68 from 80 balls. The table after 6 games each, for your perusal.



Series State - Australia lead 2-1, 1 or 4 to play. In the triangular, we have the advantage over Sri Lanka, and a win in the next match will put us through to the finals.
Batting Award - Darren Bravo - Yeah, I don't need to explain that.
Bowling Award - Dwayne Smith - Sometimes goes for runs, sometimes sensational. This time, luckily, the latter.

Team News - None.

[Imager36]

A century for each side, but their support play was better.



We lost the toss, but got to bowl first. Early on, we got regular wickets, but Sango and Chandimal put on 83 to put the Sri Lankans in the box seat. The centurion stayed to put on 44 with Kapugedara as well, and Kulasekara ended the innings well to give his team a good total, above the average score mark of around 250. Roach, Russell, Bishoo and Narine all ended with similar figures of 1/50, 2/50, 2/49 and 2/50 respectively off their 10 overs each.

Gayle was out early for 4, but Simmons and Chanders regrouped. Simmons then went, and was followed, disappointingly early, by Darren and Sarwan. Jermaine Blackwood again showed potential, however, and his 59 from 74 was very good, although not as long as he would have liked, in his partnership of 115 with Chanders. Dwayne Smith went soon after, and though the partnership between Chanders and Russell looked promising, Russell ran out Shiv for 115 off 114 balls, and our challenge was at an end. He strived with the tail, but couldn't find the boundary as we were bowled out 20 short of our target.

Series State - Due to the Lankans' superior run rate in the competition, the Aussie game is do or die for us - If we win, we play them 3 more times, and if we lose we finish bottom of the group.
Batting Award - Shivnarine Chanderpaul - His 14th ODI century, and his 3rd under my command. Bossed the game all the time he was in.
Bowling Award - Roach/Russell/Bishoo/Narine - They all did their jobs adequately, but none of them were above par.

Team News - After not scoring more than 18 in his last 5 games, Sarwan is replaced by Ryan Hinds.