Don’t look now, but the West Indies who in the past several years appeared to be headed in the wrong direction with well documented on and off-field problems, seem now to have righted the ship. Indeed, with their nail-biting victory over India in ‘the Battle of Basseterre’ at the spanking new Warner Park stadium in St. Kitts on Tuesday, the new and improved West Indies in my view, have set sail from the No. 8 position on the ICC’s latest ODI rankings, and are headed due north back to the hierarchy of international cricket.
And the team evidently is coming together under the now inspired leadership of batting maestro Brian Lara, who in his third and most likely, final stint as West Indies captain, is apparently intent on rekindling team spirit and instilling a winning attitude, particularly amongst his youthful charges.
Having already attained hall-of-fame credentials with multiple world batting records, the Prince of Port-of-Spain, as he is known in these parts, with a victory over India in one of the 2 remaining ODI’s in his hometown this weekend could be well on the way to cementing his legacy as a leader. Lara seems unconcerned about his minimal contribution with the bat so far in this series and is more focused on developing mental toughness and a will to win amongst his teammates.
Although one must exercise caution not to be overly optimistic, with the stunning four-wicket heart-stopping win before an ebullient, ecstatic capacity crowd at Warner Park, one could be excused for opining that ‘the magic is back’ in West Indies cricket. It was a great day for cricket in the Caribbean as the regional team fittingly won the first ever ODI played in St. Kitts at the newest stadium on the international cricket circuit.
As the teams battled fiercely for the one game advantage, the excitement, not only in the stadium but throughout the twin islands of St. Kitts/Nevis was palpable. And one could not help but ponder that this was in fact a precursor, a dress rehearsal, if you will, of the 2007 ICC World Cup less than a year away to be played out in nine Caribbean nations.
India must have been buoyed by the typically spectacular batting performance of their intrepid opener Virender Sehwag as Rahul Dravid won the toss and batted on an excellent track for which the local groundsman should be complimented. His brilliant 96 signaled a welcome return to form and spells danger for the Windies bowlers for the rest of the series. After Sehwag succumbed to Dwayne Bravo and Kaif’s fine knock ended as he was smartly run out for 63, India’s demise came surprisingly fast at 245 for 9 at the hands of predatory West Indies fieldsmen and the economical bowling of Gayle, Samuels, and Bradshaw. As it turned out, India sorely missed one of their leading batsmen, the in-form Yuvraj Singh, the ‘almost’ hero of the second ODI in Jamaica, who was nursing a bad back. But the day belonged to Ramnaresh Sarwan, who was playing in his 100th ODI. Coming in at a precarious 31 for 2, he immediately stamped his imprimatur on the innings with a flurry of sweetly timed drives, taking control much as he did in the previous game at Sabina Park, though with somewhat more authority. Sarwan was the architect of the Windies victory with his classy 115 not out, again manifesting patience — a vital element to complement his skilled batsmanship.
Chris Gayle contributed significantly to the innings with a measured 40. And Shivnarine Chanderpaul, felled early in his innings by a pulled hamstring showed admirable courage as he turned pain and pressure into adrenaline, and produced a thumping 58 that put his team well on the road to triumph. The injury will sideline Chanderpaul for the remainder of the ODI series. His likely replacement for the vital fourth and fifth ODI’s in Trinidad & Tobago could be Barbadian Dwayne Smith, a gifted young all-rounder.
The Indian camp will be hoping to have Yuvraj back in the line-up as they try to stave off defeat in this series at the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad.
Dravid would like to recapture the form that brought him a century at the Sabina Park and the explosive Mahendra Singh Dhoni certainly would like to get going. And so it is on to Game four as the excitement builds to a crescendo that will come sometime over the weekend in the land of the World Cup-bound Soca Warriors.
