Ausies hit by a Gayle force windie

[Dunny]

ICC World Twenty20 2009 - Group C
The Brit Oval
Australia 169-7 (D A Warner 63) v West Indies 172-3 (C H Gayle 88, A D S Fletcher 53)
West Indies beat Australia by 7 wkts
Chris Gayle blasted 88 to help the West Indies smash Australia by seven wickets in Group C of the ICC World Twenty20.
The left-hander belted six sixes at the Oval in his whirlwind 50-ball knock that saw him threaten to score a second 20-over international hundred.
Brett Lee ended Gayle's bid for three figures, although the wicket was a mere consolation for Australia as they were comprehensively beaten.
Massive blow

It was Lee who had suffered the most at the hands of the West Indies skipper, the fifth over of the innings costing no less than 27 and containing one massive blow that sent the ball out of the ground.
Fellow opener Andre Fletcher played his part in the onslaught, only just reaching his half century slower than his captain.
The 21-year-old from Grenada hit seven fours and a six in his 53 before becoming the first wicket to go down, ending a stand of 133 in 11.3 overs.
Mitchell Johnson finally removed Fletcher and also had Xavier Marshall caught at mid-off for eight by James Hopes.
It was left to Ramnaresh Sarwan, who hit two boundaries from the only two legal deliveries he faced, to see the West Indies home with 25 balls remaining.
Australia, without Andrew Symonds after he was sent home just before the tournament started, had done well to reach 169-7 in their innings.

Serious trouble

At one stage they found themselves in serious trouble at 15-3, Jerome Taylor removing Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting for ducks in the opening over.
Michael Clarke fell soon after leaving David Warner, who top-scored with 63 off 53 balls, and Brad Haddin (24) to rebuild with a 66-run stand.
Their efforts for the fourth wicket allowed their side to launch a late onslaught that was led by the Hussey brothers.
David hit three sixes in his 27 off 16 balls while sibling Mike finished up unbeaten 28 off 15 balls, including 16 off the final over.
However, their efforts were soon overshadowed by Gayle's superb display of clean hitting that leaves Ponting's side needing a win over Sri Lanka in their other group match just to stay alive in the competition.

[Sir X]

West Indies 172 for 3 (Gayle 88, Fletcher 53) beat Australia 169 for 7 (Warner 63, David Hussey 27, Bravo 2-31) by seven wickets</I>
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details How they were out

Chris Gayle hit perhaps the biggest six seen at The Oval, during his 50-ball 88 © Getty Images

Related Links
Matches: Australia v West Indies at The Oval
Series/Tournaments: ICC World Twenty20
Teams: Australia | West Indies




Don't call this an upset. Twenty20 is where it is at for West Indies, by their captain's admission, and they have copped a fair amount of flak for that comment and their subsequent poor performances in more traditional forms of cricket. So there was a sense of anticipation over how they would fare in their "preferred" format. Come match day in the Group of Death, and West Indies, and Chris Gayle, turned up for the first time in two months. They fielded pathetically but that characteristic trait was sandwiched between superb opening bowling and explosive batting.
Australia ended the match as they entered it - yet to beat West Indies in this format. Their previous meeting was a similar comprehensive defeat, by seven wickets in Barbados. This, though, was a full 20-over contest on a belter of a pitch that was flat and fast. West Indies still had 4.1 overs to spare in the end.
The pace off the surface worked for both the West Indies bowlers and batsmen. While Jerome Taylor and Fidel Edwards used the briskness and clever variations to take early wickets, the ball traveled as fast off the bats of Gayle and Andre Fletcher as it came on to them.
West Indies took the lead right from the first over of the match, bowled by Taylor. That over had everything: the outswinger, the slower ball, the slower bouncer, sharp straight delivery, and two wickets. But for three wides Australia would have been 0 for 2.
But while the other batsmen had to contend with fiery treatment from the bowlers, David Warner experienced the fielders' generosity. In Taylor's second over, two fumbles in the infield resulted in two boundaries and Warner was off. Australia were not out of trouble yet, though. When Michael Clarke toe-ended a fast short delivery from Edwards to third man, they had stumbled to 15 for 3.
A mix of responsible batting from Warner and sloppy fielding helped Australia slowly claw their way back. Denesh Ramdin missed a difficult leg-side stumping that would have sent Brad Haddin back even before he had started the reconstruction along with Warner.
A 66-run stand ensued, so did more misfields and drops even after West Indies came back to get rid of Warner and Haddin. David Hussey threatened to capitalise, hit three huge sixes, but finally fell for 27 to an impressive catch from Andre Fletcher, diving in from wide long-on.
Thanks to the poor fielding, Australia got to at least 15 more than they should have got, but it didn't prove decisive. What did prove decisive was not entirely unforeseen either. Gayle came out a man possessed, crashing through wide mid-off the first ball of the chase. Two balls later he upper-cut Brett Lee, and it rubbed off on to Fletcher at the other end.
His catch had minimised the damage towards the end of Australia's innings, and now he was in the mood to maximise damage. The first ball he faced, he heaved Mitchell Johnson over mid-on, and flicked the next over square leg for a six. Gayle chose to take his time as Fletcher went about dismantling the opening bowlers. He played fearlessly, lofting and hoicking and backing away and crashing Lee through the off side.
Once Gayle saw Fletcher get ahead of himself, though, and have a skier dropped by Michael Hussey, the captain took charge. And how. Lee's third over went for two fours and three sixes, one of them into the adjoining Archbishop Tennyson School and one on the roof, which in Ian Chappell's reckoning was the biggest six hit at The Oval.
If Australia were looking for some respite through slower pace from Nathan Bracken, there were barking up the wrong tree. By the time Fletcher got two leg-byes off James Hopes in the seventh over, the required run-rate had dropped to six an over. With the next ball, Gayle got to his 50, in 23 balls.
In the 2006 Champons Trophy final Gayle had got West Indies off to a similar start, but once he got out they had collapsed spectacularly. But Gayle dropped anchor today, letting Fletcher take the charge once more, and making sure the infamous West Indies collapse never happened.
Australia, who had chosen to be severe on Andrew Symonds, would have rued not playing a specialist spinner. That's the kind of balance Symonds provides to the team. But they moved their bowlers around. After Bracken failed, they tried David Hussey - who was lofted for a straight six first ball by Gayle.
Fletcher, too, went on the offensive, on-driving Bracken, and then heaving Johnson to reach his fifty off just 31 balls. In his sober incarnation in the latter part of the innings, Gayle got 38 runs in 27 deliveries, hitting three more sixes to take his tally to six.
By the time he got out he was within 12 of a century, and West Indies 13 of a win. More importantly, through responsible batting, Gayle made sure there was no repeat of the first match of the previous World Twenty20, when West Indies lost depite his century.

Sidharth Monga is a staff writer at Cricinfo

[Willi]

Highlights:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag-VXmXD7AI

[Willi]

More:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF7ZaW0xTCE

Windies start batting at 5:13 onwards

[Don1]

ICC World Twenty20 2009 - Group C
The Brit Oval
Australia 169-7 (D A Warner 63) v West Indies 172-3 (C H Gayle 88, A D S Fletcher 53)
West Indies beat Australia by 7 wkts
Chris Gayle blasted 88 to help the West Indies smash Australia by seven wickets in Group C of the ICC World Twenty20.
The left-hander belted six sixes at the Oval in his whirlwind 50-ball knock that saw him threaten to score a second 20-over international hundred.
Brett Lee ended Gayle's bid for three figures, although the wicket was a mere consolation for Australia as they were comprehensively beaten.
Massive blow

It was Lee who had suffered the most at the hands of the West Indies skipper, the fifth over of the innings costing no less than 27 and containing one massive blow that sent the ball out of the ground.
Fellow opener Andre Fletcher played his part in the onslaught, only just reaching his half century slower than his captain.
The 21-year-old from Grenada hit seven fours and a six in his 53 before becoming the first wicket to go down, ending a stand of 133 in 11.3 overs.
Mitchell Johnson finally removed Fletcher and also had Xavier Marshall caught at mid-off for eight by James Hopes.
It was left to Ramnaresh Sarwan, who hit two boundaries from the only two legal deliveries he faced, to see the West Indies home with 25 balls remaining.
Australia, without Andrew Symonds after he was sent home just before the tournament started, had done well to reach 169-7 in their innings.

Serious trouble

At one stage they found themselves in serious trouble at 15-3, Jerome Taylor removing Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting for ducks in the opening over.
Michael Clarke fell soon after leaving David Warner, who top-scored with 63 off 53 balls, and Brad Haddin (24) to rebuild with a 66-run stand.
Their efforts for the fourth wicket allowed their side to launch a late onslaught that was led by the Hussey brothers.
David hit three sixes in his 27 off 16 balls while sibling Mike finished up unbeaten 28 off 15 balls, including 16 off the final over.
However, their efforts were soon overshadowed by Gayle's superb display of clean hitting that leaves Ponting's side needing a win over Sri Lanka in their other group match just to stay alive in the competition.

joke cricket dat

[Sir X]

Gayle is to 20/20 cricket what Bolt is to T&F explosive .

[Willi]

Watch Gayles innings in the last URL I posted above. Magnificent!

[Sir X]

Yes indeed could we be the KINGS of 20/20 is it ours to call our own?

[Don1]

Watch Gayles innings in the last URL I posted above. Magnificent!

Yes I believe you.

However at the end of the day 20/20 has zero significance other than fattening player's wallets (which I support!)

What matters is Test matches.... that's where the meat of the matter is... and our record the past 15 years is horrible and embarrassing.

This 20/20 stuff is just momentary feel good material which disguises our backwardness in cricket.

[Islandman]

Harsh words from the purist Don1.

Didn't people say similar things about dancehall/hip-hop and just about every form of music that evolved from the previous one? One can enjoy and appreciate the more popular forms of music while recognizing that that jazz or classical music (as examples) require a higher level of technique to master. so why not the same for T20 cricket?

Sure it requires a reduced skill set, but the game can still produce moments of brilliance which should be recognized as such.

[Don1]

Harsh words from the purist Don1.

Didn't people say similar things about dancehall/hip-hop and just about every form of music that evolved from the previous one? One can enjoy and appreciate the more popular forms of music while recognizing that that jazz or classical music (as examples) require a higher level of technique to master. so why not the same for T20 cricket?

Sure it requires a reduced skill set, but the game can still produce moments of brilliance which should be recognized as such.

All true.

However that element of the game has suddenly assumed an outsized relevance and attention due to #1 Money and #2 Novelty and excitement.

We have been paying too much attention to 20/20 which in reality has had a negative effect on our overall game.... but our relative success in it has served to help paper over the gaping cracks in WI cricket.... a real dilemma.

One needs to look no further than the travesty of Gayle arriving in England a couple days before the recent 1st Test.... only to be a total failure...too busy playing that lucrative Indian curry goat league.

All that glitters is not gold.

[Don1]

Watch Gayles innings in the last URL I posted above. Magnificent!

jus watch it... it nice fi tru.

[Islandman]

With regards to WI cricket I agree with you completely. In T20 cricket the gap between the skill level of teams is greatly compressed and we would be silly to think that our ability to win a few games is due to anything else.

My comments were more with respect to the overall T20 game. Even there though, there does seem to be some level of overkill going on. Suddenly everybody is looking to start a T20 professional league , which is to be expected I guess given the succes of the IPL. The cricketing powers will have thier work cut out in taming this wild but lucrative cricketing beast and find its rightful place.

[Bricktop]

For real. I don't enjoy watching an all out slogfest over 20 overs.

[Gamma]

naw lie..if is ONE post that surprise me in almost 10 years of posting here...that was it!