A couple of days ago, the West Indian skipper-Chris Gayle was found predicting a 4-1 series win for his team, despite having the fact that Australia had defeated Pakistan in all formats of the game just last week. Anyways, Chris Gayle is also a human being to make such statements though such statements carry hardly any weight. If the first one dayer between the West Indies and Australia is considered, it was exactly opposite of what happened at Melbourne. Or, did Gayle make that statement after his team blasted the PM's XI at Canberra by 90 runs? That was the game solely for Gayle.
Anyways, coming to the first ODI between West Indies and Australia at Melbourne, the man who blasted 146 runs at a strike rate of more than 150 could score just 7 runs. Chasing a target of 257, West Indies could not even reach 150 runs. Entitled to play 50 overs, the West Indies could not even play 35 overs properly. Nor was there any sort of effort by the West Indian batsmen to chase down the target of 257 imposed by the Aussies. The top scorer for the West Indies team happened to be Kieron Pollard, who is just 16 one dayers old.
Only two of the eleven West Indian batsmen could score more than the extras that constituted for 22 runs. On the otherhand, even the total imposed by Australia was not a decent one if today's one day cricket is considered where chasing a 300+ target is not considered an issue at all. But, the Aussies did the better of the bowling part by bowling the West Indian batsmen for 143 runs. Is it the lack of fellow batsmen in Shivnarine Chanderapaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan that is responsible for the debacle of the West Indian team facing Australia? May be, because, without the presence of these players, the West Indies couldn't even win a single match against Bangladesh in 2009.
And if a close look at the West Indies team is given, barring the captain Chris Gayle, no other player in the squad that faced Australia in Melbourne had played even 50 one day matches on an average. It is not be disputed that in the presence of the experienced players, the performance of the West Indies team could have been any better. But, in the absence of these players, it is sure that the team's performance will get even worse. The presence of Wavell Hinds-who was in for the injured Bravo, could have solved matters for his experience in international since almost a decade. But, Gayle found lacking even a little bit of common sense and makes irrelevant statements.
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