SPORTS
Wednesday, 25 February, 2015
GayLe, samueLs smash ZimbabWe and ReCoRds a
SPORTS DESK
N ODI double-hundred should feel monumental. This one felt inevitable. The fastest ODI double-hundred should feel exhilarating, like a rollercoaster ride. This felt like a quiet drive home from a suburban Tupperware party. That’s what Chris Gayle does. He makes a double ton seem inevitable after going 19 months without an ODI century. This was the fifth double-century in ODIs, and it came exactly five years after Sachin Tendulkar first reached the landmark. Once a year is too frequent a rate for the milestone to be special any more, and since it was Gayle, it answered the question of when rather than if. Interviewed right after his dismissal off the final ball of the innings, Gayle
himself said a lot of people had expected it from him. “A lot of fans,” he said, “have tweeted about it since Rohit Sharma scored two double-hundreds.” Gayle finished on 215 from 147 balls. He hit 10 fours and sent 16 sixes flying over the straight boundary or into a group of fans dressed as a coven of witches beyond the midwicket boundary. At the other end, unnoticed, Marlon Samuels made his highest ODI score and played second fiddle in a partnership of 372, the highest for any wicket in ODIs. It had drizzled all through the West Indies innings, but only got heavy enough for the players to go off the field in the third over of Zimbabwe’s innings, by which time they had already lost Regis Chakabva. When play resumed 20 minutes later, the target had been revised to 363 from 48 overs. De-
spite losing two more wickets by the end of the eighth over, Zimbabwe made enough of a fist of the chase to make you wonder what might have happened had West Indies only made 320. The revival began with an 80-run partnership between Brendan Taylor and Sean Williams, before Williams and Craig Ervine - who had revived Zimbabwe in their chase against UAE - upped the rate of scoring with a 51run fifth-wicket stand off just 46 balls. When Williams holed out off a miscued a pull in the 28th over, Zimbabwe needed 186 from 20.1 overs. They had brought the equation down to a Twenty20 chase, just about, but had lost five wickets in doing so. They just had too much left to do, and when Ervine, having used the stroke productively during his innings of 51, was bowled trying to sweep a
darted Gayle offbreak, they were in danger of being bowled out. Gayle had struck four balls after coming on. In his next over, he had Stuart Matsikenyeri lbw, deceiving him for length. This was entirely his day. Gayle’s innings distilled his biggest strengths: his patience - he faced 59 dot balls, or just over 40% of the total balls he faced; only Rohit Sharma’s 209 in Bangalore contained a bigger percentage of dots among the five ODI double tons - and his ability to maximise a fairly small range of shots. Not for him the ramps and the reverse-laps. Not even the cover drives and the square cuts. Until he drilled Chatara to the extra-cover boundary to go from 196 to 200, he had hit only one four and one six through the off side. Everything else was launched down the ground or clubbed or pulled over the leg side.
SCoReBoARD West Indies 0 DR Smith b Panyangara 215 CH Gayle c Chigumbura b Masakadza MN Samuels not out 133 24 Extras (b 1, lb 2, w 16, nb 5) 372 Total (2 wickets; 50 overs; 212 mins) Did not batJL Carter, D Ramdin†, LMP Simmons, DJG Sammy, AD Russell, JO Holder*, JE Taylor, NO Miller Fall of wickets 1-0 (Smith, 0.2 ov), 2-372 (Gayle, 49.6 ov) Bowling T Panyangara 9-0-82-1, TL Chatara 9.4-0-74-0, SC Williams 5-0-48-0, E Chigumbura 7-0-44-0, Sikandar Raza 10-1-450, T Kamungozi 3-0-37-0, H Masakadza 6.2-0-39-1 Zimbabwe Sikandar Raza c Simmons b Holder 26 2 RW Chakabva lbw b Holder H Masakadza lbw b Taylor 5 BRM Taylor c †Ramdin b Samuels 37 76 SC Williams c Smith b Holder 52 CR Ervine b Gayle S Matsikenyeri lbw b Gayle 19 E Chigumbura c Gayle b Taylor 21
T Panyangara c †Ramdin b Taylor 4 16 TL Chatara b Miller 6 T Kamungozi not out Extras (lb 9, w 14, nb 2) 25 289 Total (all out; 44.3 overs) Fall of wickets 1-11 (Chakabva, 1.4 ov), 2-26 (Masakadza, 4.6 ov), 3-46 (Sikandar Raza, 7.6 ov), 4-126 (Taylor, 20.1 ov), 5177 (Williams, 27.5 ov), 6-226 (Ervine, 33.4 ov), 7-239 (Matsikenyeri, 35.4 ov), 8-254 (Panyangara, 38.1 ov), 9-266 (Chigumbura, 40.5 ov), 10-289 (Chatara, 44.3 ov) Bowling JE Taylor 10-0-38-3, JO Holder 7-0-48-3, NO Miller 6.3-0-481, MN Samuels 9-0-59-1, AD Russell 5-0-44-0, DJG Sammy 1-0-8-0, CH Gayle 6-0-35-2 MATCH DETAILS Toss - West Indies, who chose to bat Points - West Indies 2, Zimbabwe 0 Player of the match - CH Gayle (West Indies) Umpires - SJ Davis and IJ Gould (England) TV umpire - REJ Martinesz (Sri Lanka) Match referee - RS Mahanama (Sri Lanka) Reserve umpire - RA Kettleborough (England)
Felt even my enemy wanted me to do well: Gayle SPORTS DESK
Warner hopes to force mcCullum ‘brain explosion’ SPORTS DESK David Warner has great respect for Brendon McCullum, but thinks the secret to countering his influence this Saturday will be to force him to have a “brain explosion”. Australia take on New Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday and Warner expects a hostile crowd to send a few obscure swear words his way, but he is more interested in what will happen in the middle. It will be Australia’s second match of the World Cup after their wash-out against Bangladesh, and it will be New Zealand’s fourth. Their most recent game was a thrashing of England at Westpac Stadium in Wellington, where McCullum smashed 77 off 25 balls. You could say he blew the lid off the Cake Tin, except that cake tins don’t really have lids. There are plenty of dangerous batsmen in the New Zealand line-up but McCullum is the key wicket, given the swiftness with which he can take a game away from the opposition. In that sense he is perhaps New Zealand’s David Warner, which might explain why Warner believes he knows the way to get McCullum - build up the pressure and force him into a mistake. “I think a lot of people have seen in the last 10 years how Brendon McCullum can bat,” Warner said in Auckland. “It’s not by fluke or by chance he’s come out and scored the runs he has. He’s had a great last 12 months but at the end of the day he’s one player out of the rest of their team.
Not runs, not victories, not even glory. Over the last 19 months, what Chris Gayle has wanted more than anything else is something to lean on, in more ways than one. Since he last scored an ODI century in June 2013, Gayle has battled not only a nagging back injury that affects everything from his preparation for matches to the way he sits, but also nagging criticism. Gayle has been targeted by everyone from fans to the president of his own cricket board, who retweeted a message that called for Gayle to be given a “retirement package,” after he failed to fire in the first two World Cup games. David Cameron deleted the message and apologised, but his actions
left an impression, particularly on Gayle. “As a player, you’re disappointed to see where it came from. You need support in a World Cup event so to get support would be fantastic. Negatives are not needed,” Gayle said. “I’m still playing with an injury and I’ve been restricted in a lot of areas. I haven’t been able to score the runs.” Gayle’s injury, which he says “can’t seem to be solved,” means he cannot go to the gym as often as he would like to. He has been “trying to do a lot of massage,” to ease it but admitted it still impacted the way he approached the game. “I am in an uncomfortable situation to be honest. Being strong mentally is what keeps me going.” Keeping his own mind focused has not been easy either, especially because of the fuss created
over his lack of form. Everywhere Gayle turned he was reminded about his struggle for runs. “There has been a lot of pressure,” he said. It was only when Gayle decided to see that expectation as a a collective cheer that he could see how it would be possible to feed off it. “This is the first time since I’ve been playing international cricket that I have received so many messages. It felt like even my enemy wanted me to do well,” he said. “Around the world, I have entertained a lot of people, and I felt like they all wanted me to do it again. Even last night, I was having dinner with Sulieman Benn and he said, ‘Chris, you average over 50 against Zimbabwe,’ so it felt like everybody wanted me to do well and I really wanted to get some runs.”
death-bowling costing us: Chigumbura SPORTS DESK If the World Cup played in a 40-over format, Zimbabwe could have won all their matches so far. At that stage of the game, Zimbabwe have been ahead all three times. In Hamilton, Zimbabwe had South Africa 193 for 4 after 40 overs and were 234 for 5 in the reply themselves. In Nelson, they had UAE were 204 for 4 after 40 overs and had reached 222 for 5, in a contest they went on to win anyway. And in Canberra, West Indies were 220 for 1, Zimbabwe 262 for 8. So what goes wrong? “We have to improve how we are bowling at the death. It has cost us,” Elton Chigumbura, Zimbabwe’s captain said. “If we had bowled well in almost all the games, we would have chased around 300 or just under. It’s a matter of polishing up one department. We have to go and work hard on our last 15 overs.” Tinashe Panyangara and Tendai Chatara, Zimbabwe’s two main seamers, are both regularly used in the last few overs, which seems like a good enough plan. The pair keep things tight upfront with decent lines and lengths, but later on they lose those. Panyangara appears to have become a target for settled batsmen, who treat him with circumspection in the first few overs but allow themselves to free the arms later on, while Chatara’s search for the yorker is ongoing. For now, he has discovered only the full toss. Zimbabwe’s only other options are spin which does not seem to work either - or for Chigumbura to absorb the responsibility himself and take on the job. Chigumbura is a mature captain, who uses his bowlers as cleverly as one can with a limited attack, and is severe in rotating them as soon as it seems things are running away from them. That extends even to himself. When he can see he is being hit too much, Chigumbura takes himself off. Now, he has learnt to keep himself on but bowl better. In doing that, he may be able to offer another option at the end, just as he has done with the bat in the past. Although Chigumbura has yet to showcase his big-hitting skills in this tournament, the performance of the batting line-up overall has been a pleasing aspect for Zimbabwe. They are known as vulnerable chasers, but have put up a fight in every game and contributions throughout the order have kept them in games. “Its a good positive for the team that we are batting well. Before, our batting used to let us down but we have done better,” Chigumbura said. Better but not quite their best. None of the Zimbabwean batsmen have gone on to three figures, although the big guns - Hamilton Masakadza, Sean Williams, Craig Ervine and Brendan Taylor - have threatened to. The top two still needs to solidify, and they need to get into the habit of posting big partnerships. Chigumbura is hopeful they are getting there. “We feel like we are going towards the right direction. We are playing positive cricket and we have to keep looking forward,” he said.
Philander out of West Indies match SPORTS DESK South Africa fast bowler Vernon Philander will miss South Africa’s next match, against West Indies on February 27, and is in doubt for their game against Ireland next Tuesday after being diagnosed with a Grade 1 hamstring strain. Philander sustained the injury on Sunday, during the clash against India at the MCG, when he bowled just four overs and was off the field for most of the Indian innings. Although he returned to bat later in the game, an MRI scan on Monday revealed the extent of the damage. Philander has been prescribed a recovery period of between a week and 10 days, which will mean South Africa will definitely seek a replacement quick for the West Indies game, but the management remains hopeful he will be able to play against Ireland. “We have to give him every opportunity to make sure that he can be available. At the same time we don’t want to be foolish by taking shortcuts. If he passes all the fitness tests and
is symptom free going into the Ireland game he may play but at this stage it is too early to tell,” Mohammed Moosajee, the team’s manager said. This is the second time in six months that Philander has been sidelined
CMYK
with the same problem. He was also ruled out of the triangular series between South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia with a hamstring niggle but recovered in time for the West Indies series at home. The recurrence of the injury is South
Africa’s most serious concern since the start of the tournament, after Quinton de Kock won the race against time to recover from an ankle ligament tear, Farhaan Behardien had a back problem and missed the second warm-up match and Dale Steyn suffered a bout of sinus, which kept him out of a training session. Philander’s hamstring was a concern before the match against India, when he received treatment for stiffness. He was also seen doing shuttle runs at training. His unavailability leaves South Africa without a frontline quick and affects the balance of their side. They have two reserve seamers in Wayne Parnell and Kyle Abbott, who will compete for Philander’s spot. Parnell was expensive and erratic in the India game and may make way for Abbott, who has not had a game so far, while South Africa will also bring in an extra batsman to ensure their batting depth is not disturbed. Behardien sat out against India but could make his way back to the No. 7 position or South Africa may look to Rilee Rossouw.