West Indies made a mockery of the third one day international by scuttling out the English team as if they were in a hurry to get somewhere. The visitors were knocked over for 117 in 41.3 overs which represented something of recovery after the embarrassment of 68 for eight and Windies captain Chris Gayle completed the annihilation with a brutal unbeaten 80 off 42 balls in which the ball went from the bat like a loaded shot-gun.
It was a struggle for England throughout after West Indies asked them to bat first on a pitch that had plenty of give. When West Indies batted, there was a complete transformation and they coasted to their eight-wicket victory in a mere 14.5 overs to take a 2-1 series lead ahead of the penultimate match tomorrow.
This vast no-contest, described by England captain Andrew Strauss as humiliating and embarrassing, was over by 3:51 p.m. and it has to go down as one of the most emphatic West Indies performances at the venue in the shorter version of the game.
Gayle batted like he had a hot date before dinner, smashing a hapless attack with no mercy in a proliferation of sixes in which the ball appeared to go further and further each time it came off the West Indies captain’s rampaging bat.
His eight sensational sixes went in every direction with so much fury that England’s bowlers would have been shivering in their boots and reluctant to bowl at the unstoppable Gayle.
There was one memorable over that cost 24 in which Dimitri Mascarenhas was bludgeoned for three sixes. The first was in a stand-and-deliver fashion that was hit down the ground and went up, up and into the second tier of the 3Ws Stand.
The second, which took Gayle to 50 off 27 balls, was just as awesome. It was flat, but struck with just as much venom and landed on the steps of the Garfield Sobers Pavilion, while the third was off the legs, over square-leg and into the beach.
The devastation wasn’t finished yet. When James Anderson replaced Mascarenhas, his treatment was just as harsh and his first two balls sailed over the ropes, the first by way of a disdainful flat-batted shot over long-on and the second from an extraordinary upper cut over third-man and into the Hewitt & Inniss Stand.
Had it not been for the rain that delayed the start until 11 a.m. and reduced the match to 45-overs-a-team, a further brief stoppage that brought it down to 44, and an England ninth wicket partnership of 48, the packed crowd of more than 14,000 would have been heading home by 2 p.m.
The blow-out was West Indies’ first win over a major international nation in an ODI at Kensington since 1999 and it brought back memories of the Stanford Superstars’ no-contest last November when England were routed for 99 and the hosts cantered to a ten-wicket victory in 12.4 overs when Gayle led the onslaught with an unbeaten 65 off 45 balls.
England batted like a woeful bunch of amateurs and it was mind-boggling that batsman after batsman would perish to either the hook or pull against climbing balls.
"It was pretty humiliating and fundamentally pretty embarrassing. There are 11 guys in that dressing room who feel very down with themselves," Strauss said after the debacle.
"It wasn’t a contest. We didn’t play well. There wasn’t enough thought in the way we batted. We haven’t done ourselves enough justice."
One by one, the England batsmen attempted to get after the bowling, but none was successful.
Fidel Edwards started England’s woes by despatching both openers, Strauss to an attempted hook that provided a high swirling catch to Gayle running back from first slip, and Ravi Bopara to a miscued pull that resulted in a catch to mid-on.
While Edwards was making the initial inroads, Lionel Baker was a model of accuracy at the opposite end in his nine successive overs that included five maidens and only 21 runs.
When Edwards was replaced, Dwayne Bravo, always one to make things happen, struck with his first ball.
Kevin Pietersen, a potential danger man whose pre-match comments could not have done anything to enhance the England dressing room, was another victim to a hook and gave a catch to deep square leg.
It all went downhill for England. Bravo proceeded to collect four wickets that won him the Man-of-the-Match award, which could also have gone to Gayle, and West Indies were on their way.
