Clinical Australia wallop West Indies by Jinu Sabastian

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Ground:	Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne
Scorecard:	Australia v West Indies
Player:	KA Pollard, SR Watson, RJ Harris, NM Hauritz
Event:	West Indies in Australia 2009/10

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DateLine: 7th February 2010

 

The Australian side put up a clinical performance to crush the West Indian side by 113 runs to take lead in the five match ODI series. The Australian side continued their glorious summer run as after the Pakistani side it was West Indies who came in their way.

 

The West Indian skipper Chris Gayle surprised everybody by electing to bowl first trusting his bowlers to restrict the Australian batsmen. The bowlers bowled well to put a straitjacket on the Australian openers with new pace Kemar Roach proving difficult to get away. Shane Watson and Shaun Marsh after initial circumspection began to opened up and collected the boundaries. The pair added 50 for the first wicket in 10.3 overs before Smith intervened. Shaun Marsh (20, 34 balls, 3x4) drove at a ball well outside his off stump and edged it behind. Watson and Ponting then joined forces to inject some momentum into the game. The pair put on 85 in 16.2 overs with the Australian skipper twice clearing the ropes. The West Indian skipper Chris Gayle then removed Watson (59, 74 balls, 3x4) and Ponting (49, 61 balls, 2x6, 1x4) followed couple of balls later when he was cleaned up by Pollard.

 

The scoring then dawdled as the West Indian medium pacers led by Pollard strangulated the batsmen. Michael Clarke (18, 30 balls) could not find the fluency that he is so often associated with and he was put out of his misery by an accurate Pollard. White (22, 35 balls, 1x4) could not repeat his big hitting heroics that he displayed against Pakistan as he top-edged a pull. Hussey (28, 25 balls, 2x4) and Johnson (21, 20 balls, 2x4) ran hard and collected a couple of boundaries for themselves to push the score beyond the 250 run mark.

 

West Indies in reply got of to the worst possible start as they lost Gayle (7, 5 balls, 1x4) in the second over as the skipper pulled a ball that wasn't short enough. Morton (3, 15 balls) never looked at ease in the middle before Harris put him out of his misery. Dowlin (1, 4 balls) too departed without doing much leaving his team in a quandary at 12 for 3 in 4.4 overs. Lendl Simmons (29, 62 balls, 1x4) and Deonarine (19, 31 balls, 3x4) tried the steady the innings.

 

But the Australian bowlers led by Harris and Hauritz ensured that the West Indian batsmen never got a chance to chase down the target as hey relentless chipped away at the West Indian batting line-up. Finally the visitors fell short by 113 runs thus letting the Australian side take lead in the five match series.