ST. GEORGE S (AFP) – Adil Rashid snared four wickets in five balls as England resisted a determined West Indies effort to claim a 29-run victory in a high-scoring fourth One-Day International at the National Stadium in Grenada on Wednesday.
Responding to the tourists mammoth total of 418 for six, the highest ever in an ODI in the Caribbean, the home side were set on course by a rampaging 162 off 97 balls by veteran opener Chris Gayle.They remained in the hunt until the 48th over when leg-spinner Rashid, who had taken a fearful hammering in his first four overs, broke an 88-run seventh-wicket partnership between Carlos Brathwaite and Ashley Nurse.He then scythed through the tail — taking the last three wickets in the next four balls — to finish with figures of five for 85 off his allotted ten overs.
Despite Rashid finishing as the match-winner with the last five wickets of the innings, it was fast bowler Mark Wood who prevented the home side from running away with the game as he completed his ten-over spell with excellent figures of four for 60 on a pitch tailormade for batting.West Indies total of 389 was their highest-ever in ODIs but it will be of little consolation given the final capitulation which saw the last four wickets falling at the same score to leave England with an unbeatable 2-1 lead going into the final fixture of the five-match series on Saturday in St Lucia.
Persistent rain prevented a ball being bowled in the scheduled third match, also in Grenada, on Monday.Setting a target for the first time in the series after West Indies captain Jason Holder won the toss, England underscored the reputation acquired by their batting line-up since the disappointments of the 2015 World Cup in racing to what looked an unassailable total.
Jos Buttler led the way with a rampaging innings of 150 off just 77 balls with 12 sixes and 13 fours while his captain, Eoin Morgan, suffered only by comparison to the wicketkeeper-batsman s astonishing innings as he reached 103 off 88 deliveries with six sixes and eight fours decorating his innings.Their fourth-wicket partnership of 204 came in less than 21 overs and followed an excellent comeback innings of 82 by Alex Hales at the top of the order.
Having been selected to bat in the middle-order for the abandoned third match, he replaced the injured Jason Roy as opener and made full use of the opportunity in ideal batting conditions, putting on exactly 100 with Jonny Bairstow for the first wicket.Just a week after the West Indies posted a new record tally of 23 sixes for an ODI innings, England surpassed that number by one, Buttler thrashing Brathwaite for another huge hit over deep midwicket before the big all-rounder bowled him with the next delivery in the final over of the innings.
England bludgeoned 154 runs off the final ten overs with Buttler accounting for 105 of those in a withering display of power-hitting.Gayle s effort in response, which included 14 sixes and 11 fours, was remarkable given the 39-year-old left-hander s relative lack of mobility.Supported by 61 from Darren Bravo in a 176-run third-wicket partnership, the former captain looked in the mood to take the home side to a sensational victory until he was bowled heaving at Ben Stokes in the 35th over.When Holder departed at 301 for six, West Indies chances appeared extinguished.
However Brathwaite, who registered a maiden ODI fifty, and Nurse (43) kept up with the required rate in an entertaining stand.It appeared to be a huge gamble for Morgan to persist with Rashid against the two big-hitters but his faith in the spinner paid rich dividends, Nurse miscuing a swing at the bowler at the start of his final over to trigger the final slide.
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BRIDGETOWN: Windies cricketer Chris Gayle on Wednesday broke former Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi’s record of most sixes in international cricket when he hit a six off the first ball in the 15th over bowled by Moeen Ali.
With that, Gayle edged past the Pakistani batsman for his 477th big hit.The 39-year-old now stands at the top of the list with 488 international sixes, having smashed 287 sixes in ODIs, 103 sixes in T20Is and 98 maximums in the longest format of the game.Gayle achieved the feat in his 444th match while Afridi had smashed 476 sixes from 524 matches.New Zealand’s Brendon Mccullum is third in the list with 398 hits over the fence, followed by Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya (352) and India’s Rohit Sharma (349).Gayle also smashed his 24th ODI century anchoring the West Indies to a formidable total of 360 for eight batting first against England in the day/night first fixture of a five-match series at Kensington Oval in Barbados.
Playing his first ODI since the home series against Bangladesh last July and having announced that the upcoming World Cup will be his international farewell in the format, the big-hitting left-hander signalled his intentions for a lengthy grand finale with an innings of 135 off 129 balls with 12 sixes and three fours. His tally of maximums dominated an innings in which 23 sixes were struck, a new record for an ODI innings as Ashley Nurse heaved Adil Rashid beyond the boundary off the final ball of the innings to eclipse the previous standard.Despite conceding 34 runs off his final two overs, leg-spinner Rashid played an important role together with all-rounder Ben Stokes in limiting the West Indies progress over the final 15 overs. Stokes returned the best figures of three for 37, including the important wicket of Gayle in the 47th over, dragging a full-length delivery onto his stumps.Rashid claimed three for 74, making important breakthroughs at the other end when the West Indies needed to press on the accelerator.England, who lost the preceding Test series 2-1 in a surprise turnaround for the home side, paid dearly for Jason Roy dropping Gayle at point off seamer Liam Plunkett when the former West Indies captain was just on nine.
However, the top-ranked ODI team, who will go into the World Cup as one of the favourites to lift the coveted title, fought back well over the final ten overs when it looked as if the home side would get closer to the 400-run mark with Gayle in full flow. A typically ponderous start by the 39-year-old after West Indies captain Jason Holder chose to bat first saw the early spotlight being taken by John Campbell, who marked his ODI debut with a breezy innings of 30 before falling to Chris Woakes.Shai Hope and Gayle then featured in a 131-run partnership for the second wicket with Hope looking particularly impressive with the variety of his strokeplay while Gayle was content with occasionally heaving towards the boundary ropes.Stokes eventually got the breakthrough when Hope, on 64, got a leading edge to third man.While the innings went through a bit of a stutter with the dismissals in quick succession of Shimron Hetmyer and the other West Indies debutant, Nicholas Pooran, it was left to Darren Bravo, demoted down the order to accommodate the big-hitters, to regain momentum with 40 off 30 balls.Holder and Nurse ensured the West Indies total would be competitive, although in such ideal batting conditions England would be fancying their chances of chasing down the target, especially as the West Indies team is without experienced fast bowler Kemar Roach, who was ruled out before the start of play with a back injury.
Joe Root became the first England player to score a century during the series as the visitors strengthened their stranglehold in the third Test against West Indies on Monday.
Ben Stokes was on 29 and England were 325 for four in their second innings at the close, an overall lead of 448 runs with two days remaining in Gros Islet.Root had endured a poor series with the bat, making just 55 runs in his five previous innings.But he made amends by notching up his 16th Test century with a classic drive through mid-off for four, albeit off a generous full toss from Alzarri Joseph.Root’s celebration showed just how much the innings meant to him as he punched the air, hugged teammate Stokes and then soaked up the minute-long applause from a pro-England crowd singing his name.Root did not want to read too much into his recent low scores, especially since a couple of those dismissals had been to virtually unplayable deliveries.“You can look at it like that but you can look at some of the dismissals I’ve had in there too,” he told a BBC podcast.
“You have to be realistic sometimes. If you feel form is a numbers game, then I have had a lean run but I’ve got a good approach to batting and it’s stood me in good stead until now.”Though the series is lost, he said the match was far from being irrelevant.“It’s been a tough three games and we have been outplayed at times so I think it was important we showed some resilience, bounced back and showed what we are capable of as a side.”Former England captain Nasser Hussain agreed.“Some people might say the series is gone, but not if you’re the England captain,” Hussain said on the international television broadcast.“They’ve got an Ashes summer, a World Cup summer. It now could be 2-1 and a hundred in your last Test innings of the winter in Test cricket.“That sets up you perfectly for what lies ahead, so this game and this innings was absolutely vital for Root.”West Indies endured a long day in the field, picking up just four wickets.Their cause was not helped by a thigh injury incurred early by pace bowler Keemo Paul, who departed on a stretcher, leaving West Indies with only three quick bowlers complemented by Roston Chase’s part-time spin.Batsman Darren Bravo was also absent from the field after being struck on a finger on Sunday
