Cricket Tournaments

It was an all too familiar tale for West Indies at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain, as they had the opposition (South Africa) in trouble, let them get away, and eventually collapsed like only they can to hand the game away on a platter. Their batting in particular was atrocious.

Despite a brave recovery from the Proteas, the Windies bowlers had done reasonably well to restrict the batting side to just over 350. What they needed though was for the batting to fire well enough for them to get a lead in the 150-run region.

Instead, the inexperienced line-up collapsed for a paltry score and, in effect, that is where the game was decided. In spite of a reasonable batting effort in the second innings, the home team was left with a little too much to do in the end.

That the game finished in three and a half days in spite of the amount of time lost due to rain told a tale in itself. None of the Windies batsmen could play a proper Test knock even though three of them crossed the 20s. The disheartening aspect yet again was the ungainly attitude of the players.

There was hardly any effort made to try and battle it out in the middle, expect for a brief while when Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Narsingh Deonarine were at the crease. If only they could take some lessons from the way South Africa fought back, the contest could have been a lot closer, even if the result wasn’t.

The top half of the Proteas’ batting completely fell apart. Yet, A B de Villiers, Ashwell Prince, Mark Boucher and even Dale Steyn showed great resolve in helping their side to fight their way back into the game. And once that was done, the South African bowlers proved to be deadly.

Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel demonstrated what raw pace coupled with a degree of accuracy can do to a mediocre batting outfit. They destroyed the Windies batting line-up with such consummate ease, as if they were playing against some minnows. While West Indies did not bat smartly, it was not South Africa’s fault and so the bowlers deserve to walk away with the plaudits.

And even as the home side fought back in the second essay courtesy gutsy efforts from skipper Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo, Steyn and Morkel again did enough to destroy their hopes of a comeback. And this time, they were aided by the other bowlers too.

While South Africa did splendidly with the ball, they would like to top order to do better than what they did in the first innings at Port of Spain. Of course, they would have been pleased to see skipper Graeme Smith getting amongst the runs, still there is enough scope for improvement as none of their batsmen went on to get a ton despite a number of them getting close.

The Proteas should aim to shut out the Windies in the next Test with a dominating batting performance against a relatively weak attack.

If one has to pick up a bright spot in yet another disastrous performance from West Indies, it would have to be the effort of Sulieman Benn. After his controversial send off in one of the one-dayers, it was pleasing to see the left-arm spinner set things right with the ball.

Using his guile and height, Benn was successful in troubling the African batsmen and, in the process, was rewarded with as many as eight wickets. Not only that, as if to make a stronger point, he held up the opposition’s charge with his batting heroics in the second innings.

Now, if only Benn can continue to display the same attitude in the future matches, West Indies can be aided to some extent in their endeavourer to put together a better unit. Also impressive was debutant Shane Shillingford, who picked up four wickets and had South Africa in early trouble.

Shillingford has shown some promise, and it is crucial for the decision-makers to stick with him for a fair while and see if he is capable to delivering in the long run. Too many Windies talents have been recruited and discarded in recent times, just for the sake of chopping and changing, which has done little good for the team.

This Test has been another ‘what if only…’ story for West Indies. But, the good part is that Gayle has promised to give his young guns another go. This time, however, they need to put up a better effort, and the seniors like Chanderpaul too have to put their hands up and deliver to help West Indies put up a fight. About winning, that’s really doesn’t come into the equation as of now.

Twice in two games, West Indies were in with a great chance of upsetting South Africa in the T20 series being played in their own backyard. However, on both occasions, they squandered the opportunity, and were left licking their wounds.

This is nothing new to Caribbean cricket, and their unlucky fans, who have to be part of this ignominy time and again. This, indeed, has been the story of Windies cricket for the past decade and a half. And, under the current circumstances, there is very little chance of things improving in the future.

The major problem with West Indies cricket is no so much of talent as it of attitude. As skipper Chris Gayle said after the loss in the second match, the players need to look into themselves and try to redeem themselves.

This wont be easy though as the players have got used to making losing a seriously consistent habit, and mostly from a winning position. There is too much of negativity and lack of confidence around the squad.

What else can explain the inability of their batsmen to chase down 137 and 120 in a T20 game? True, the pitches weren’t exactly the best for T20 cricket. Still, both targets were achievable, more so since they are playing in home conditions.

Coming to the players there is too much dependence on Gayle, another throwback to the 90s when Brian Lara was the sole warrior for the side, and West Indies more often than not needed him to perform miraculous feats to achieve wins.

Despite his experience, Gayle is nowhere near the class of Lara, and lacks his consistency as well, which makes matters far more worse. Thus, every time he fails, the West Indies look like a bunch of players from a minnow side, and slide to embarrassing lows.

The disaster in the T20 World Cup was a glaringly reminder, and the way they have started in the ongoing serious against the Proteas gives one a strong sense of déjà vu.

The saddest part of West Indies never-ending decline is that there is dearth of talent as such in the side, but somehow they just cannot get their act together, or rather are not wholeheartedly dedicated to the cause of reviving their team’s fortunes.

Take the case of Dwayne Bravo. The genuine all-rounder, in spite of all the experienced gained over the years, hasn’t quite turned out to be the match-winner he truly can, and one West Indies desperately need, apart from Gayle. This is not to say that he hasn’t been performing consistently.

He has been among the better performers for his side in recent years. However, he is yet to take the lead to the next level. He is destined for greater things, but keeps falling short just like in the last match, where he top-scored but couldn’t secure the elusive win for his side.

Bravo is not the only one to be blamed for yet another Windies debacle though. The skipper Gayle himself needs to start look beyond batting and inspire some confidence in his rather inexperienced mates. And, for this, he will need the full backing of senior teammates like Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan.

All the infighting within the team and issues with the board need to be put on the back burner for a start. What West Indies need most is eleven players who are cent per cent dedicated to the cause of winning. The results might still not come. But, at least the beleaguered fans will be able to appreciate the effort that was put in.

The boys from West Indies got the better of the England in a rain-reduced run chase through the Duckworth Lewis method to make it to the semi finals of the T20 WC Men’s competition. They beat the hosts to knock them out of the competition. This is for the first time after a gap of more than ten years that the West Indies team has made it to the Semi Finals of a major tournament.

The experience of Ramnaresh Sarwan and classy Shivnarine Chanderpaul through an unbeaten partnership of 37 runs in 20 balls ensured safe passage for West Indies into the Semifinals. With South Africa having already qualified from this group, the match between England and West Indies was nothing sort of a Quarter Final Clash. The Windies players managed to hold on to their nerves in an intriguing match to make it to the Semi finals of the T20 World Cup competition this year.

Earlier set into bat the Englishmen scored a respectable 161 runs loosing six wickets in the process. Ravi Bopara played the crucial anchor’s role scoring 55 runs and Kevin Pietersen scored a quick fire 31 runs of just 19 balls to set up a challenging total for the West Indies. Other notable contributions included Owais Shah with 18 runs, Stuart Broad with 10 crucial runs of just 2 balls and James Foster with a useful knock of 13 runs towards the end of the innings. The Englishmen were hoping to get a complete match, which might have given them a chance of reaching the semis.

With heavy downpour right after the England innings, the match eventually got underway with West Indies being set a revised target of 80 runs from nine overs. The England bowlers did their best to restrict the Windies batsman as Ryan Sidebottom got rid of the dangerous Chris Gayle, after the opener had hammered him in the first four balls of the over. Stuart Broad got rid of Lendl Simmons in his very first over. West Indies were tottering at 23 for the loss of three wickets and the shortened target was looking stiff.

Dwayne Bravo, the only Windies player to have been consistent throughout the tournament contributed useful 18 runs to the run chase, before the English pair of Swann and Foster combined to remove him. With Bravo gone, the West Indies were looking for some miracle to make it to the next round. With 16 runs required of the last two overs, the experienced pair of Chanderpaul and Sarwan ensured that West Indies suffered no further hiccups in the run chase. By scoring 13 runs of the penultimate over the Windies batsman ended all hopes of an England victory. Sarwan ended the match by smashing Sidebottom to the extra cover boundary.

West Indies thus made it to the Semifinals of the competition through group E and must watch out for the match between South Africa and India, to get to know their fate. If South Africa can beat India, the West Indian team would qualify for the Semi Finals as the Group runner up and might face the daunting task of playing last year’s loosing finalist Pakistan in the Semi finals.