Caribbean flair burns Australia

AFP

The West Indies were unstoppable as they crushed Australia and entered the final of the ICC World Twenty20.

 
Australia were battered and destroyed by a West Indies side that combined power, guile, spin and seam to terrifying effect, paving the way for a huge 74-run win for the West Indies and a slot in the ICC World Twenty20 final.
Chasing the West Indies’ mammoth 205 for four, built around a 75 not out by the inimitable Chris Gayle and contributions all the way down to Kieron Pollard, the Australians were dismissed for 131 with 3.3 overs left.
Skipper George Bailey’s defiant 63 didn’t really solve anything for Australia. All it did was reduce the deficit.
But it was a great effort, under the circumstances.
Samuel Badree was the bowler to watch. He opened the bowling, dismissed David Warner and then took care of Shane Watson to end the contest within five overs.
Samuels added the scalp of Mike Hussey and Rampaul got rid of Cameron White and David Hussey in the same over.
Narine then gobbled up Mathew Wade. It was almost too painful to watch. Pollard then came in to end Bailey and Pat Cummins’ defiance. The rest were just stats.
What the batsmen had begun, the bowlers finished with great aplomb. Chasing over ten runs an over, Australia’s batting was cracked by Samuel Badree to begin with, with Marlon Samuels and Sunil Narine also sending down the slow stuff effectively.
Whatever little fight was left was ended by Ravi Rampaul’s seam-up stuff. It was a procession of batsmen that never halted.
Earlier, the West Indies, apart from their insane ability to hammer the bowling, also showed some great tactical acumen. It was evident that Gayle would play for as long as he could, while his mantle would be taken over by the others.
Right from the beginning, Johnson Charles began the assault as Gayle dug in. The process continued with Marlon Samuels and Dwayne Bravo and culminated with Kieron Pollard joining in.
So Gayle played a ‘sedate’ inning, even taking singles to rotate the strike. But sedate is a subjective word. His sedate was a 75 not out off 41 balls with five boundaries and six monstrous sixes.
But the others too, were in business. Samuels was in great nick and while his scoring was at less than a run a ball, the overall impact was such that the scoring rate just kept going up.
This West Indies team is an amazing one. Any one of these batsmen can win a match on his own. When you have three or four of them getting into the act, it was sheer murder.
The Australian bowlers were clueless. Once it was clear that Gayle won’t hit everything, they were at a loss as to how to deal with him, as well as how to control the runs from the other side. They never even got close.
The line and length went all over the park. Wides and byes flowed, simply adding to the torrent of runs. They were hammered when they bowled full-length. They were hammered when they bowled short.
The match was over in the first innings itself. That score of 205 was way above anything that this pitch promised. The bowlers couldn’t have imagined anything like this.
Bailey’s captaincy wasn’t close to being good, but to be fair to him, no skipper could have done much. However, choosing two left-arm spinners against a team with Gayle to lead the charge was a little presumptuous – the presumption being that he would get out and the left-armer would be more effective against the right-hand batsmen.
That too was a fallacy. The biggest folly was to leave Xavier Doherty to bowl the last over. Gayle and Pollard got 25 runs there and whatever chance Australia had of being in the game, ended right there.