West Indies vs Bangladesh 5th ODI goes down to the wire

You may remember that, in yesterday’s piece (Darren Sammy to the rescue; West Indies levels series 2-2), I made the following comment

Will Gayle finally return to form for the final match or will Pollard and D.R. Smith show up to a match batting-wise finally? I think one of those two needs to happen to guarantee a win by the West Indies. Otherwise, it will be a tough (though winnable) match.

The second one was not going to happen because the West Indies replaced D.R. Smith with Andre Russel who failed miserably with the bat, though Pollard scored an impressive 85. But was Gayle going to return to form? Nope. Didn’t happen. He went for 2 and remains in a slump we have never seen him in.

That means anyone’s game then, from my assessment, righ? Yes it did.

West Indies were dismissed again for a modest 217 in 48 overs and needed a bowling performance like yesterday’s to pull out the series win.
The start of the bowling was not as great as we yesterday’s  but was good. However, Bangladesh was scoring at a big run rate and was in command.

In the end, despite Roach’s late heroics and a late mixup by Bangladesh’s batsmen, the West Indies couldn’t take all the wickets and, with Bangladesh well-ahead in the net run rate, it ended up a reasonably easy Bangladesh win.  Should Sammy have brought  himself back in with Russell having a tough day?  You be the judge.

Scores:  West Indies 217;  Bangladesh 221-8 from just 44 overs.

The Summary

So, with Gayle failing in all 5 ODIs and both tests, West Indies sweep the tests due to Chanderpaul & Powell’s batting brilliance, and some good fast bowling mixed with Permaul’s spin.  However, West Indies ends up losing the ODI series 2-3 to Bangladesh.

A bit of soul-searching needed by West Indian selectors, and D.R. Smith, Pollard, and Gayle.  The lineup needed better, more proven batters of spin (the brunt of Bangladesh’s attack) and the Pollard / Smith combination was not very good overall.  With Gayle failing in every match, it was another demonstration of the lack of good batting in the ODI selection.


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