Start of The West Indies' ODI Debacle

Until recently, the West Indies had trouble only when it came to test cricket but now, the West Indies have started extending their dismal performance even in the one day international matches as well. After getting whitewashed in the recently concluded 2 test match series against England by a 2-0 margin, now, it looks as though it is the turn of the ODIs to follow suit. Last time in 2004-2005, when the West Indies had played England on two occasions successively, they had lost 7 out of the 8 test matches played but, they had a better run in the one dayers.

First, the West Indies leveled the 5 match one day series with both the West Indies and England winning two matches. And then in the return series, in the Natwest series involving West Indies, England and New Zealand, England failed to make it to the finals of the tri series then. Not to mentioned that West Indies lost the finals to New Zealand without giving the Kiwis a tough time on the field. But, this time, the West Indies have shown signs of collapsing in the one day matches as well. Out of three matches, with the first one being abandoned owing to rain, the second one was a one sided affair with the game being completely dominated by England.

West Indies were nowhere in the game from the beginning of the match. First, they not only lost all their wickets for a partly score of 160, but also could not bat their complete quota of 50 overs. The West Indian batsmen were bowled out for 160 in just 38.3 overs. And in the second, no attempt was found to be made by the West Indian bowlers to make things difficult for the English batsmen either. The English batsmen were able to reach the target of 161 in just 36 overs, with as many as 14 overs remaining. I wonder as to how come players like Chandrapaul, Ramdin and Sarwan couldn't cut lose despite being known for their big hitting ablities!

It was fascinating to see Paul Collingwood do the trick with both the bat as well as with the ball. Collingwood ended up with figures of 3/16 from his alloted 6 overs and then scored a 50 ball 47 that included 4 hits to the fence and one huge six. A glance at the scorecard of the match would suggest that it was a shortened game with each team being allowed to play just 39 over, when the West Indies' batting chart reading 160 in 38.3 overs from the allotted 39 overs and the England chart reading 161/4 in 36 overs. But, that was not the case. It was as though that England were playing some minnow team and not the team that has had 2 world cup wins in the past.