CATEGORY:SPORTS
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By Trevor Thwaites
Inside Grenada correspondent
Wednesday November 08,2006


DESPITE LOSING the ICC Championship final to world Champions Australia, West Indies have shown that they are a force to reckon with in world cricket. At number eight in the world ranking going into the tournament, the Brian Lara led outfit beat the likes of the World Champions Australia and India twice and South Africa in recent outings. The West Indies entered the Champions Trophy Finals last Sunday in India with Australia in Mumbai, at two games a piece.

However as has been the case in recent times, the West Indies batting collapsed badly to be all out a paltry 138 in 38.4 overs. It was definitely an anti-climax, as the West Indies began promisingly - racing to 49 for5 in five overs - with Christopher Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul on the go. The Australian opening attack was literally blown apart with Brett Lee conceding 36 in three overs and Glen McGrath 25 from two.

But Left Arm fast bowler Nathan Bracken bowled Gayle with a beauty – an away swinger that shattered his off stump, which saw the Windies lose their
last six wickets for a mere 50 runs. In fact they lost their last 10 wickets for 89 runs, with Bracken grabbing 3 for 22, McGrath 2 for 24 and Steve Watson, who was named man of the match 2for 11. It was truly a marvelous fight back by the world champions, who were beaten by the West Indies in the preliminaries of the competition.

West Indies had also had the Australians number in the Tri-Nation Tournament that preceded the Finals of the ICC Champions Trophy and must have fancied their chances against the Aussies after smashing South Africa in the semi-finals. But Watson played superbly to help his team home in style. He scored an unbeaten 51 and shared in an unbroken stand of 103 for the 3rd wicket with Damien Martyn, who scored an unbeaten 48. They came together with Australia in a bit of trouble on 13 for 2, after two of the top players in the game skipper Ricky Pointing and Adam Gilchrist had fallen cheaply.

West Indies nonetheless brought back smiles and some measure of hope to regional fans with their performances which at times were fantastic. The results were also inconsistent, especially in the batting department which appears prone to collapses. However, there are some bright prospects with the batting of Gayle, who was voted the player of the series for his three centuries, Bravo, who also hit a century and Chanderpaul, who also batted well.

The bowling of young Jerome Taylor has also been heartening. He was the
Spearhead of the West Indies attack grabbing some 14 wickets in the tournament. His hat trick against Australia in the preliminaries was truly magnificent. Fellow fast bowler Ian Bradshaw has also been a leading bowler along with spinners Gayle and Marlon Samuels and even Dwayne Smith during the competition. With seven wins from twelve matches in the recent tournaments in India, the team has definitely been improving.