C r i c H o t L i n e |
- Preview: West Indies vs New Zealand 2nd ODI Kingston 2012
- Preview: Australia vs England 4th ODI Chester-le-Street 2012
- Gayle stars as West Indies beat New Zealand in 1st ODI
| Preview: West Indies vs New Zealand 2nd ODI Kingston 2012 Posted: 06 Jul 2012 01:30 PM PDT
The inclusion of Chris Gayle and Dwayne Smith has proved huge for West Indies with the top-order pair scoring heavily in the Twenty20s and then fashioning a 130-run stand on Thursday. Smith's unbeaten 65 at a strike-rate of 84.41 was his second in three games since his return to the team after two years and he has been a big bonus. With Gayle continuing his IPL form and the all-round pair of Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard in the middle order, West Indies have a strong batting lineup. The bowling department isn't bad either. Andre Russell had a strong outing at Sabina Park, taking 4 for 45 including the top three batsmen to set West Indies on the road to victory. Russell will be accompanied by Sammy, Ravi Rampaul and Bravo with mystery spinner Sunil Narine – who claimed two wickets in the last encounter – in an attempt to keep New Zealand to a low total again. Batting is the main concern for the New Zealanders. They have been failing consistently to stand up to the West Indies pace attack. The stand-in captain Kane Williamson has taken over the reins in absence of their regular skipper Ross Taylor who has suffered shoulder injury, and has overseen two crushing defeats in a row without contributing with the bat. On the bowling front, New Zealand have a well balanced attack with a couple of decent quick bowlers in Kyle Mills, Tim Southee and Doug Bracewell and a canny spinner in Nathan McCullum, but need to tighten their lines and lengths to prevent the hosts from storming off the blocks. Apart from Mills (5-1-7-1) none of the bowlers went for less than 5.28 with three conceding runs at more than six. Probable XIs: New Zealand: 1 Rob Nicol, 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Dean Brownlie, 5 BJ Watling (wk), 6 Jacob Oram, 7 Andrew Ellis, 8 Nathan McCullum, 9 Kyle Mills, 10 Doug Bracewell, 11 Tarun Nethula  |
| Preview: Australia vs England 4th ODI Chester-le-Street 2012 Posted: 06 Jul 2012 12:30 PM PDT
The other disappointing news is that offspinner Grame Swann, who has played a key role in the team's upward growth in all three formats in the last couple of years, has been ruled out of the remainder of the series on account of an elbow injury. That this doesn't affect England's tag as favorites for the Chester-le-Street is an indication of how dominant they've been over the Australians.
England's batting has been really good in the series so far. Ian Bell, the captain Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Ravi Bopara and Eoin Morgan all have scored runs in spades and that's where they look superior to Australia. England's bowlers too have been on the ball. James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Steven Finn have been a handful. With Swann out of the picture now, Kent offspinner James Tredwell is likely to get a game on Saturday. Also, pacer Chris Woakes is expected to replace Jade Dernbach, who pulled out of the series after the second ODI on account of a side strain. The visitors will find it difficult to come back in the series but the first step must be to win to ensure the final game in Manchester does not become a dead rubber. To achieve that, they will need a much stronger batting performance than they showed at Lord's and the Oval, where they made 257 for 9 and 251 for 7 respectively. David Warner, Shane Watson, Clarke, George Bailey all have been among runs, but there has been a lack of a big innings. In the bowling department, Brett Lee has been impressive but only in patches. Mitchell Johnson, and Clint McKay too have been, put it simply, inconsistent. The series is under the spotlight as many believe it will give an idea as to who holds the upper hand in the time-honoured Ashes next year. If England go on to win the remaining matches, it will be a morale-booster of gigantic proportions. For Australia, it will be the other way around. Probable XIs: Australia: 1 Shane Watson, 2 David Warner, 3 David Hussey, 4 George Bailey, 5 Michael Clarke (capt), 6 Peter Forrest, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 Brett Lee, 9 Clint McKay, 10 Mitchell Johnson, 11 Xavier Doherty  |
| Gayle stars as West Indies beat New Zealand in 1st ODI Posted: 05 Jul 2012 10:06 PM PDT
West Indies was well on its way to chasing down New Zealand’s total of 190-9 off 50 overs when rain halted their charge at 93-1 off 18 overs at Sabina Park. But victory was sealed soon after resumption as they coasted to a revised target of 136 off 33 overs with 8.4 overs to spare.
Opener Gayle slammed three fours and five sixes in an unbeaten 63 off 57 balls, his third successive half century following two in the Twenty20 internationals last weekend. Smith top-scored with 65 not out, spiced with six fours and three sixes off 77 deliveries. The pair’s match-winning, second-wicket stand was worth 130 unbroken off just 128 balls. Earlier, fast bowler Andre Russell took 4-45 from 10 overs to stun the Kiwis and earn the man of the match award. Spinner Sunil Narine helped maintain the stranglehold with 2-26 while pacer Ravi Rampaul took 2-42. Wicketkeeper BJ Watling top-scored for the visitors with 60 off 98 balls while allrounder Jacob Oram scored 32. Russell made an immediate impact with the new ball, finding the edge of Martin Guptill’s bat for captain Darren Sammy to snap up a low second slip catch. Rob Nicol (14) and left-hander Daniel Flynn (12) shared a stand of 27 for the second wicket before Russell removed both in successive overs to further derail the innings. Flynn tried to force through the off side and dragged onto his stumps while Nicol swatted a high catch to deep midwicket to leave New Zealand floundering at 33-3 in the 10th over. Narine added to the Kiwis’ woes by removing Dean Brownlie, plumb leg before wicket. Sammy claimed opposite number Kane Williamson (24) to a wicketkeeper’s catch at 71-5. Watling and Oram put together a sixth-wicket stand of 46 to revive the innings. Oram was the more aggressive, slamming two fours and two sixes. He eventually fell to Rampaul, his stumps scattered by a slower ball off the last ball of the batting powerplay at 117-6. Andrew Ellis (14) was Narine’s second wicket, bowled trying to force through the off side, after sharing a stand of 44 for the seventh wicket with Watling. Watling anchored the innings, his second half century arriving off 86 balls. He was the ninth man out, leg before to Rampaul. New Zealand claimed an early breakthrough as they tried to defend a modest total. Kyle Mills provided the spark as Lendl Simmons deflected a leg side catch to a diving Watling on 8. But there were few highlights for the visitors following that as Gayle and Smith dominated with some thumping strokes. Gayle, in his first international in his home country for three years, was first to stamp his mark, launching Tim Southee for his first six and sending two more sixes sailing out of the ground off Nicol and Tarun Nethula. Smith was equally punishing, finding the boundary regularly as well. The stand was well established when lightning and thunder and heavy rain caused a two-hour delay and threatened to waste the good work from the hosts. But the skies eventually cleared and both batsmen notched half centuries as they steered their team home comfortably to the adjusted target. Smith was dropped just before the end, but the result was never in doubt by then. The second match in the five-match series is at the same venue on Saturday.  |
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