Windies win lifts hurricane scarred Caribbean

THE WEST Indies Cricket Team finally gave their supporters something to cheer about yesterday when they scored a thrilling two-wicket win against England in the final of the Champions Trophy tournament at The Oval in London. The victory however came in the gathering gloom of a chilly autumn afternoon which partially lifted the shroud of despair that has gripped the Caribbean game for more than a decade. And it provided some vindication for the game’s greatest batsman Brian Lara, who has been pilloried recently by armchair critics including several former top regional players for not providing motivation and leadership to his young charges. Yet yesterday, despite Lara’s claims that the scintillating victory was a team effort, it was two of the oldest members of the team — wicketkeeper Courtney Browne and fast bowler Ian Bradshaw — who brought home the bacon. For at 147 for eight, chasing England’s 218 all out, the writing was on the wall for the West Indies, who looked once again like they had flattered to deceive, brushing past South Africa in the  quarter-finals and the dangerous Pakistanis in the crucial semi-final.

But the Bajan duo conspired to upset the best laid plans of the cock-a-hoop Englishmen through a display of sensible, iron-willed and heart-stopping cricket that helped their team to break a near 25-year drought of a world cricket championship.  Bradshaw scored 34 runs and Browne added 35, both career bests as they frustrated the homesters and raised the hopes of the entire cricket-mad Caribbean in an unlikely partnership of 71 runs — the highest ninth wicket partnership for the West Indies in One-Day Internationals. The previous standard was 63 set by the late Malcolm Marshall, the legendary Barbadian speedster and his towering compatriot in fast bowling, Joel Garner set in Sydney on February 6,1985. Interestingly both Browne, captain of the all-conquering Barbados team in the recent regional First Class championship and Bradshaw were specifically selected for the International Cricket Council tournament, regarded as the Mini World Cup and the biggest cricket series after the World Cup. That they would refuse the umpire’s offer to leave the field yesterday as the London darkness enveloped The Oval and opt instead to finish off the match, showed the kind of steely determination the current crop of Caribbean cricketers have been accused of surrendering.

But it was exactly this singlemidedness and unity of purpose that the men in maroon exemplified yesterday when Lara called the toss of the coin correctly and sent in his opponents to bat. In the cold conditions, with the sun shining brightly, the opening bowlers struggled to maintain control in the testing conditions but did exactly what their captain expected of them. The sell-out crowd estimated at 27,000 was stunned into silence when Bradshaw, bowling with great control and menace sent back the first two wickets, Vickram Solanki for four and the prized scalp of England captain Michael Vaughan for seven, getting an inside edge onto his stumps. Then Trinidadian Dwayne Bravo, regarded as one of the brightest prospects in world cricket displayed his tremendous potential by a spectacular exhibition of fielding off his own bowling to run out Andrew Srauss by mere centimetres. And skipper Lara, recovering from a nasty blow on his neck when he failed to negotiate a Shoaib Akhtar bouncer against Pakistan on Wednesday, got into the act pulling off a blinding one-handed catch at short midwicket to send back England hero Andrew Flintoff for his 100th catch in One-Day Internationals.

But it did not go all West Indies’ way as England opener Marcus Trescothick played a courageous innings notching his eighth limited overs century — 104 including 13 boundaries — before he fell in the 46th over, run out by a Lara throw from the deep.  Pick of the Caribbean bowlers was Wavell Hinds who took three wickets for 24 runs, career best figures in the shortened version of the game, including three maidens in his ten overs. The target of 218 to win was certainly gettable and the West Indies set about their task in businesslike fashion racheting up 18 in the first three overs before England struck sending back opener Wavell Hinds and the in-form vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan with the score on 35. Then 11 balls after, the hard hitting opener Chris Gayle mis-hit a short delivery to give  Steve Harmison a simple caught and bowled opportunity and he was out for 23. Lara, always a player to impress on the big stage, made just 14 before he played a reckless shot outside the offstump and was caught behind and pretty soon West Indies were 72 for four and looking down the barrel of a gun.

Allrounder Bravo was next and he did not last too long failing to score and was followed into the pavilion by Ricardo Powell the Jamaican who now lives in Trinidad and Tobago. The last hope at that stage for a miracle was Guyanese Shiv Chanderpaul to help the challenge alive but when he left for a well-played 47, West Indies hearts were heavy and expecting the worst. But good things come from where you least expect it as Browne and Bradshaw came together and took the entire Caribbean and millions of fans of Calypso cricket on a roller-coaster ride that left us exhilarated at the end. Throughout the week Lara has been saying it was the intention to give the region something to cheer about especially the hurricane ravaged islands of Grenada, Jamaica, Caymans and Haiti. So it was not surprising that our hearts collectively rose when, immediately after the stirring victory the colourful flags of these islands lofted by the celebrating West Indies team members, took pride of place on the world cricket stage, united us once again as we were for the preceding nine hours.