What cricket means to West Indians.... Bangladesh make clean sweep of make shift Windies

What cricket means to West Indians…. Bangladesh make clean sweep of make shift Windies

May 18, 2020 Sports

In July of 2009 Bangladesh came to the Caribbean and after a strike by the senior players, a make shift side was assembled. Led by Floyd Reifer, West Indies lost by 95 runs in Jamaica and by four wickets in Grenada in the next Test. Guyanese Travis Dowlin fell six short of a maiden Test century.
This was the first time that a team ranked lower that the West Indies had achieved a clean sweep in a series against them.
The West Indies, back to full strength, travelled to Australia and lost the 1st Test by an innings and 65 runs in November 2009. Dowlin, one of the players who kept his place from the Bangladesh series, stroked a first innings half-century, while Adrian Barath scored a century on debut in the second innings.
The second Test was drawn as Bravo scored a century and Nash, an Australian by birth, made a solid 92 in the first innings before Gayle hit a magnificent 165 in the second innings.
West Indies ended 2009 on a losing note as they lost the final Test by 35 runs and with it the 3-Test series 2-nil. Gayle first innings hundred and fifties from Narsingh Deonarine and Nash in the 2nd failed to prevent Caribbean team from defeat.
South Africa came to the West Indies and won the first Test inside four days in Trinidad by 163 runs despite a fighting 73 by Gayle. The 2nd Test in St. Kitts was drawn after three South Africans reached triple figures and Chanderpaul (166) and Nash (144) faced 505 balls between them in one of the most boring but important partnerships in Test cricket.
In Barbados in the final Test South Africa won by seven wickets despite an unbeaten 71 from Chanderpaul as Guyanese pacer Brandon Bess was summoned from the breakfast table at the High Performance Centre (HPC) to make his Test debut after injury to two key fast bowlers during warn up sessions. But for the second time in the series, the game was completed inside four days. This would be the only Test match Bess would play much like fellow Guyanese Ryan Ramdass had done five years earlier in Sri Lanka.
The Caribbean fans were getting increasingly frustrated in their teams performance as the West Indies travelled to Sri Lanka in November 2010.
Gayle presented them with an early Christmas gift with commanding 333 as the hosts were made to follow-on in the drawn encounter.
The next Test was drawn after the entire fourth day was washed out in Colombo with Roach taking 5-100 in the first innings, while the final Test was also drawn after days three and five were both washed out as the West Indies ended 2010 with rain helping them to draw the series.
When Man-of-the-Match Darren Sammy scattered the stumps of Saeed Ajmal at 1:28PM on May 15, 2011 at Providence to claim his fourth five-wicket haul (5-29) and first as West Indies Captain, his team had won its first Test since beating England in Jamaica, 17 Tests ago in February 2009.
The emphatic 40-run win, with almost a day and a session to spare, was also the first win by the West Indies against Pakistan in 53 years in five Tests in Guyana and included a World Record 20 LBW decisions, surpassing the 17 in Trinidad in 1993 between the same teams. This was also the first Test victory for West Indies in Guyana since they beat England in 1998 at Bourda.
Misbah-ul-Haq was the only batman for either team to reach a half-century on a treacherous track. Guyanas leg spinner Devendra Bishoo was given his Test debut on home soil.
West Indies just needed to avoid defeat in St Kitts in the next Test to win only their fourth Test series since 2003 when they beat Sri Lanka.
West Indies began the final Test confident of the series win but an all too familiar collapse from the home team resulted in them crashing to a 193-run defeat inside three days.
The hosts began the 2011 home series against India in Jamaica with a 63 loss inside four days before 73 from Darren Bravo in the second earned West Indies a draw in the next Test.
The third and final Test was played in the Nature Isle of Dominica and Shiv Chanderpaul became the first player to reach a Test ton on the Island for which he was rewarded by being given Honorary Citizenship of Dominica.
Kirk Edwards scored a century on debut as West Indies entertained a capacity crowd which turned out for the Nations first ever Test match with a draw as the Indians surprisingly opted not hunt down the victory target.
West Indies journeyed to Bangladesh in October and aided by a wash out of days two and three drew the first Test of the two-match series.
The second Test in Dhaka saw the visitors romping to an emphatic 229-run win with Darren Bravo making 195 in the second innings after Kirk Edwards had scored his second Test ton in the first innings. Edwards unrelated name sake Fidel captured 5-63.
Chanderpauls defiant first innings 118 was not enough to prevent West Indies from a five-wicket loss in the first of a three Test series against India in November as the West Indies, who played 10 Tests in 2011, continued to struggle at the highest level.
Indias victory at Eden Gardens was even more convincing; winning by an innings and 15 runs as Sehwag, Laxman and Dhoni all scored first innings hundreds.
Darren Bravos 136 in the second innings made little difference to the outcome of the contest which ended in four days. Darren Bravo racked up back-to-back centuries in the drawn final Test as West Indies finished 2011 with a 2-nil series loss.
West Indies played another 10 Tests in 2012, losing four of their first five but finished the year on a high with consecutive victories in their last four.
Australia won the first Test in Barbados in April by three wickets despite an undefeated century from Chanderpaul but West Indies drew the second match as Chanderpaul fell six short of another Test century in Trinidad.
In the third Test in Dominica Chanderpaul registered fifties in both innings but the home team lost the match by 75 runs and the series 2-nil.
In May, West Indies toured England and although Chanderpaul made two half-centuries England won by five wickets at Lords, while in the second Test the home team won by nine wickets as Samuels made a century and Sammy got his first Test hundred.
The final Test was drawn as rain, which washed out three days of the contest, a fighting century from Ramdin and a world record 95 by last man Tino Best helped the West Indies cause.
Kieran Powell and Gayle both scored tons in a 254-run opening stand, while Sunil Narine (1st innings) and Roach (2nd innings) took five-wicket hauls as New Zealand were beaten by nine wickets in the first Test in Antigua in July 2012.
New Zealand lost the second Test by five wickets in Jamaica after Samuels scored an elegant century and followed it up with a classy fifty in the second innings, and West Indies had finally won a series.
In November, Bangladesh hosted the West Indies and lost the first Test by 77 runs as Chanderpaul with an unbeaten double century, Powell (who scored tons in both innings) and Ramdin all scored centuries in the same innings. Best crowned a fine performance by the Caribbean side with a five-wicket haul.
West Indies completed back-to-back series wins when they defeated Bangladesh in the 2nd and final Test by 10 wickets.
Samuels (260), Chanderpaul (150*) and Darren Bravo (127) registered centuries in the same innings, while Tino Best bagged 6-40 as West Indies ended their best year in recent times. (Sean Devers)