Gayle And Deonarine Help West Indies Level Series

Gayle And Deonarine Help West Indies Level Series

Chris Gayle was bowled out in Guyana, but his 88 helped set up a series-levelling victory for the West Indies.

©Action Images / Steven Paston Livepic

West Indies 208-6 (Gayle 88, Deonarine 65no) beat
Zimbabwe 206 (Chigumbura 50, Miller 4-43) by four wickets
Second One-Day International, Providence
Scorecard

Well-paced half-centuries from Chris Gayle and Narsingh Deonarine led the West Indies to a four-wicket victory over Zimbabwe in the second One-Day International to level the five-match series at 1-1.

After being set 207 to win, Gayle made a flying start to his innings of 88 in 111 balls before reining himself as in as his side lost wickets, Zimbabwe's spinners coming to the fore.

In partnership with Deonarine, who scored a career-best unbeaten 65 in 85 balls, he added 83 for the fifth wicket, during which he played a number of extravagent strokes before being bowled by leg-spinner Graeme Cremer as he tried to hit a third six.

A pair of wickets from left-arm spinner Ray Price and Cremer proved in vain, however, as Deonarine led the West Indies home in the 48th over, Darren Sammy thumping a boundary down the ground to end the match and hand the West Indies their first win in 15 ODIs, ending a run that stretched back to June 2009.

Earlier, left-arm spinner Nikita Miller took four for 43 as Zimbabwe were bowled out for 206 in 49.5 overs.

Elton Chigumbura hit 50 in 72 balls and Brendan Taylor made 47 but Zimbabwe struggled as the West Indies took wickets regularly, pacer Kemar Roach returning three for 37, Gayle one for 25 while the first and last wickets to fall, those of Vusi Sibanda (5) and Christopher Mpofu (0) were run outs.

Mpofu returned to Zimbabwe's side in place of Shingirai Masakadza but bowled poorly at a stage of the game where the West Indies were under pressure to score quickly. Gayle and Deonarine saw them through that and despite a late rally which saw Gayle and Kieron Pollard (6) dismissed, Zimbabwe were unable to pull off their third staight victory of the tour.

The series now moves on to Kingstown, Saint Vincent, for the final three games on 10th, 12th and 14th March.

© Cricket World 2010

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