“West Indies could still finish with a flourish, but senior batsmen need to step up!”

Jul 21, 2013 Sports

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Colin E. H. Croft
Later today, at 1-1, one tied, two to play, West Indies and Pakistan go at it again, trying diligently to effect superiority!
That tie in “Helen of the West” – SLU – last Friday only re-confirmed how extremely close these two teams have always been.  If hearts are not perfect, do not try to endure these next two games!
Former, maybe even next, West Indies One Day International captain, Darren Sammy’s tweet was right.  He exhaled with a massive sigh of relief for his team’s success in Guyana.  Even that tie was a strange win!

West Indies needed that face-saving success against Pakistan in 2nd ODI, at Guyana’s National Stadium at Providence.  Again, batsmen failed, generally, but, at least, like almost always, bowlers shone through!  What is it about these batsmen that is so enigmatic?  Vast deserts do not blow this varied hot and cold!
Having tied last Friday at truly beautiful Beausejour cricket ground, in the island I consider the Caribbean’s most beautiful, St. Lucia, West Indies could still finish the 2013 ODI season on a great high!
Triumphantly starting 2013 playing Tests against a gallant but under par Zimbabwe, West Indies faltered badly after that in ODI’s; Champions Trophy in UK, then against India and Sri Lanka last month; not even, disappointingly, making their “own” final.  Few expected that decline.
As promised and has been so since their first series tour against West Indies, in 1958, when legends Conrad Hunte, Everton Weeks, Clyde Walcott, Hanif Mohammed, Wazir Mohammed, Roy Gilchrist, OG “Collie” Smith, Lance Gibbs, Garfield Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Fazal Mahmood, Nazim-ul-Ghani, Imtiaz Ahmed and Saeed Ahmed all featured, Pakistan and hosts are now as evenly poised and evenly placed as ever.
My first Test series, 1977, Pakistan’s second only Caribbean tour, was even closer than that, West Indies just winning 2-1.  Certainly, with this excitement, Pakistan should tour here much more often!
As in my 1st Test, in Barbados, Pakistan should have won last Friday.  Had it not been for real doggedness, showing true team grit, from bowlers turned batsmen, as in 1977, West Indies would have lost!
Chris Gayle did make a century in Jamaica last month, as highlighted, after ten poor innings, but the lull continues.  He has gone so much off the boil that one wonders if he is in the house, much less the kitchen!
Again that old stager, Misbah-ul-Haq, quite reminiscent of Mustaq Mohammed, kept Pakistan together, easily displaying why a batsman like West Indies’ Shivnarine Chanderpaul should always be included, especially when their batsmen have been failing and the line-up always needs propping up from the tail!

Misbah’s 75 and that flashing 40 from wicket-keeper Umar Akmal, reminding all too of his older brother, and former wicket-keeper, Kamran, put Pakistan to an unlikely, quite underwhelming, gettable, 229.
Jason Holder, always with potential, has settled in well, 2-40 (10 overs) showing that his 4-13 at Providence was no fluke.  To date, six ODI’s, ten wickets, avg. 20.70, economy rate 4.19 per over, are not bad at all.
98, 232-8 and scramble to tie at 229-9, have also shown that West Indies batting is not doing its job well!
Indeed, had it not been for recently recalled all-rounder, Lendl Simmons, who should have featured fully against India and Sri Lanka, West Indies would have fared even worse.  His 75 in ODI No. 3 was priceless!
At 7-184, over No. 47, with Kieron Pollard again failing, no-score; his confidence seems utterly shot; West Indies were down and almost out.  At 9-205, over No. 48, Pakistan certainly held the upper hand.  But the two young Barbadians, Kemar Roach and Holder, obviously known much more for their bowling than batting, held their own brilliantly, for at least a West Indies tie.
That is very similar, incidentally, to a young Joel Garner and Colin Croft, along with Andy Roberts, actually saving West Indies, for a tight draw in Test No. 1, back in 1977!
It seems that West Indies bowlers are always saving face for the batsmen, but really, these present batsmen can hide no longer.  Their massive reputations go before them, but they have fizzled out!
Only Darren Bravo, 54 in ODI No. 2, along with Simmons’ 75 last Friday, have been West Indies batsmen’s totals of more than 50.  With such a batting line-up, that statistic is severely galling!
Johnson Charles, his more illustrious counterparts Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Pollard, even Marlon Samuels, are finding that the wispiness and varied speed, left and right, from Pakistan’s Mohammed Irfan, Asad Ali, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi and Mohammed Afeez, to be very troubling.
The pitches too have not been what perhaps West Indies needs.  Misbah-ul-Haq has already suggested that the Providence Stadium pitch was one of the toughest that he has played on, where scoring runs was at a premium, while Beausejour was also relatively slow, if at least more bouncy and playable.
So, evenly matched, the series has become a cauldron of survival for batsmen!
West Indies’ own have a chance starting today, to change that, and, for a bonus, win a series too.  Enjoy!

Pic – , Lendl Simmons (WICB)

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