England Bounce Back To Limit West Indies To 239
©Action Images / Scott Heavey Livepic
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England Bounce Back To Limit West Indies To 239
West Indies 239-9 (Bravo 69, Mascarenhas 3-26) v
England
Fourth One Day International, Barbados
England showed some character to bounce back from another blistering assault from Chris Gayle to restrict the West Indies to 239 for nine in the fourth One Day International in Barbados. Heavy rain then reduced England's target to 135 in 20 overs.
Losing the toss was no hindrance for Gayle, who blasted 46 in 39 deliveries, including sixes off of Stuart Broad and Andrew Flintoff while at the other end, James Anderson was effortlessly taken for a maximum by Lendl Simmons (29) as the pair put on 72 for the first wicket in 12.4 overs.
A smart piece of bowling had Gayle skying the ball and he was caught by Matthew Prior. Simmons was run out when Ramnaresh Sarwan called and then sent him back and shortly after Sarwan (6) was bowled by Flintoff as England bounced back.
Chief architect of this resurgence was Dimitri Mascarenhas and he bowled a searching spell, returning three for 26 in ten overs - just two runs more than he conceded in one Gayle boundary-ridden over two days ago when England were mauled during an eight-wicket defeat.
His medium pace accounted for Shivnarine Chanderpaul (27), Denesh Ramdin (26) and Kieron Pollard (0) as the West Indies almost lost their way in the middle overs.
They were put back on the straight and narrow by some excellent batting from Dwayne Bravo, with the all-rounder hitting seven fours and two sixes before he was caught by substitute fielder Ian Bell off of Broad, who finished with three for 63; an impressive recovery after he was savaged by Gayle early on.
More clean hitting from Gayle saw him bludgeon five sixes and three fours but more wickets late on meant that the West Indies were not able to capitalise on another fine start from the left-hander, who smashed 80 in 43 balls at the same venue on Friday.
England made one change with Steve Harmison coming in to replace Gareth Batty while the home side, who lead the series 2-1, are unchanged.
West Indies: Chris Gayle, Lendl Simmons, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Sammy, Denesh Ramdin, Nikita Miller, Fidel Edwards, Lionel Baker
England: Andrew Strauss, Ravi Bopara, Kevin Pietersen, Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Matthew Prior, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Stuart Broad, Steve Harmison, James Anderson
© Cricket World 2009
