West Indies enjoyed a crushing 141-run victory over Zimbabwe to take a 2-1 lead in their five match one day series after dismissing the tourists for just 104 at Arnos Vale in St Vincent.
Pace bowlers Darren Sammy and Kemar Roach ripped through the Zimbabwe batting line-up after a Shivnarine Chanderpaul half-century had helped West Indies to a solid 245 for nine from their allotted 50 overs.
Openers Chris Gayle (33) and Adrian Barath (35) gave the home side a steady start before Chanderpaul and Denesh Ramdin put on 65 for the third wicket and Dwayne Bravo — in his 100th ODI appearance for West Indies — led a late flurry to boost the total.
However, the game was won with the rapid pace of Roach (3-28) and the intelligent medium pace of Sammy (4-26) with Hamilton Masakadza (35) the only Zimbabwe batsman to establish himself.
Zimbabwe made a decent start and reached 51 inside 10 overs before the second wicket fell.
TAKING ADVANTAGE
The tourists never recovered though from the loss of four wickets for seven runs with St Lucian Sammy and Barbadian Roach taking full advantage of a wicket that offered help to the seamers.
Sammy would have had five wickets had Gayle not dropped a relatively straightforward catch at slip, having earlier taken a superb one-handed grab to dismiss Greg Lamb off Roach.
“It was definitely a team effort and I am very happy with the result,” Gayle said.
“Well done Darren Sammy, he could have got five wickets and it was my fault he didn’t. I am sure Zimbabwe will come back hard at us on Friday and we shouldn’t get carried away now,” the West Indies skipper said.
“I am really happy with the result, and I am happy we continued from where we left off in Guyana,” the Jamaican said.
‘NO TIME TO RELAX’
“Hopefully, we can continue in this vein, and finish off the job on Friday, and win the series. This is no time to relax,” he said,
The series concludes with games today and on Sunday and Zimbabwe skipper Prosper Utseya said he expected a better display.
“We just failed to bat properly, we thought we could chase that total but we didn’t bat well. They made use of the conditions, they bowled in the right areas and deserved the win,” he said.
“We only have a day to sort ourselves out, but it is important that we come back strongly,” Utseya said.
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