The Golden Isles - A Third Time Lucky West Indies Story

[Imager36]

And we start the season with one of my easiest and most straightforward test victories!



Powell and Gayle started well, and whilst Gayle fell for 33, Powell continued. He eventually fell for 72 after sharing a 109 partnership with Chanderpaul, including 8 boundary fours. Edwards and Darren were out for 9 a piece, and Dwayne got a start but did not go on. Ramdin fell early, but Russell managed to put on 77 with Chanders for the 7th wicket. He then went on and managed 30+ partnerships with both Rampaul and Bishoo, taking our innings well over 400.

Their first innings was built around two good-sized partnerships, with two collapses in between. These both included young opener Maneshan, who was unlucky not to get his second test match century. The first collapse took them from 72/0 to 105/4, and the second took them from 186/4 to 216 all out, instigated totally by Bishoo and Narine, and allowing us to enforce the follow on.

Maneshan did manage his second century this time round, and the first two partnerships were good this time round, with Sri Lanka at one stage being 173/1. This time around, it was Narine and Rampaul who were the primary destroyers, with Sangakkara ending up with only 3 runs in the test match.

We only needed 71 to win, and despite the 2 wickets, we never had real problems.

Series State - West Indies lead 1-0 with one to play.
Batting Award - Shiv Chanderpaul - 191 runs for 1 wicket. So glad he didn't retire.
Bowling Award - Devendra Bishoo - 9 wickets in the match, and it's very hard to argue with that.

Team News - On a pitch looking like turn will be less important, and with a draw being enough to secure a series victory, Nash comes in for the impressive Narine.

[cricfan1]

2012/13 Season Review

Okay, before we look at what's to come in the next 12 months, we'll do a bit of a season review... first up, let's look at how the tables were this time last year, and how they look at the start of this season.

April 2012



April 2013



So as you can see, however good the season seemed, we've dropped 2 points and a place for tests and only gained 1 point in ODIs, despite gaining 5 in T20Is, but mainly due to not having played the countries yet.

Next up is a look at the match awards given away during the season, totalled, in the...

Self-Awarded Award Awards!

Only players with more than one award in the discipline are listed.

Test - Batting

Kirk Edwards - 3
Chris Gayle - 3
Adrian Barath - 2
Brendan Nash - 2

Test - Bowling

Devendra Bishoo - 5
Ravi Rampaul - 3
Dwayne Bravo - 2
Andre Russell - 2

ODI - Batting

Shiv Chanderpaul - 7
Chris Gayle - 6
Lendl Simmons - 5
Adrian Barath - 2
Ramnaresh Sarwan - 2

ODI - Bowling

Andre Russell - 7
Kemar Roach - 6
Sunil Narine - 6
Dwayne Smith - 5
Devendra Bishoo - 4

T20I - Batting

Shiv Chanderpaul - 4
Darren Bravo - 3
Lendl Simmons - 2

T20I - Bowling

Sunil Narine - 4
Andre Russell - 3
Devendra Bishoo - 3
Dwayne Smith - 2
Chris Gayle - 2

And now, as if you hadn't had enough of the lists, I'm going to list the top 5 West Indians and the top overall on each of the world ranking tables, along with their points totals.

World Rankings

Test - Batting

1st - AB de Villiers - 866
7th - Chris Gayle - 647
8th - Kirk Edwards - 638
22nd - Darren Bravo - 546
23rd - Shiv Chanderpaul - 538
30th - Brendan Nash - 450

Test - Bowling

1st - Peter Siddle - 1016
6th - Devendra Bishoo - 755
27th - Ravi Rampaul - 432
31st - Sunil Narine - 378
37th - Dwayne Bravo - 354
40th - Andre Russell - 346

ODI - Batting

1st - Alastair Cook - 805
3rd - Shiv Chanderpaul - 735
8th - Chris Gayle - 634
10th - Lendl Simmons - 633
22nd - Darren Bravo - 475
50th - Dwayne Smith - 279

ODI - Bowling

1st - Andre Russell - 885
3rd - Kemar Roach - 741
6th - Sunil Narine - 702
9th - Dwayne Smith - 600
18th - Devendra Bishoo - 506

T20I - Batting

1st - AB de Villiers - 911
5th - Shiv Chanderpaul - 828
7th - Lendl Simmons - 751
13th - Chris Gayle - 608
21st - Darren Bravo - 550
39th - Ramnaresh Sarwan - 418

T20I - Bowling

1st - Vernon Philander - 920
3rd - Andre Russell - 776
26th - Dwayne Bravo - 311
31st - Devendra Bishoo - 110
32nd - Sunil Narine - 109
47th - Chris Gayle - 82

And just to record the most runs and wickets in a season, with brackets for the number of games played, here those are.

Most runs and wickets (All Seasons)

Runs

Tests - Chris Gayle - 933 (7, 2012)
ODIs - Shiv Chanderpaul - 1249 (25, 2012)
T20Is - Shiv Chanderpaul - 449 (13, 2012)

Wickets

Tests - Devendra Bishoo - 56 (12, 2012)
ODIs - Kemar Roach - 53 (25, 2012)
T20Is - Andre Russell - 27 (13, 2012)

nice Stats But west Indies still down in ranking

[Imager36]

nice Stats But west Indies still down in ranking

I'm working on it - You can add a point to that test table!



We batted first and, much to my discredit, I made sure the match was as boring as possible. You know, the type that gives test matches a bad name? We won the toss and batted, and then took 223 overs to compile our 560. We struggled at the start though, as we were reduced to 34/2 and 117/4 and made 250 look like it might be a decent score. Luckily for me though, Darren and Nash put on 183, Dwayne managed a half-century and Ramdin managed his second test century, mainly with the tail, to pretty much secure the series.

We then bowled the Lankans out for 374, the type of score that prevented any realistic victory but still made them look inferior. Rampaul took 4 wickets, Russell 3 and Bishoo the other 3, with Dwayne bowling 21 overs for no reward.

Powell was out early again for 1, and Gayle managed his 36th test 50 before he was also dismissed. Chanderpaul and Edwards put on an unbeaten stand of 214 to secure both centuries, and take the game, boringly, to a close.

Series State - West Indies win the series 1-0.
Batting Award - Darren Bravo - The first century of the match, and set the tone for what was to follow.
Bowling Award - Ravi Rampaul - The test captain showed he's still a partnership breaker, even though we weren't gunning for wickets as hard as we could have.

Now, 3 ODIs against the same opponent. The squad follows.

C. Gayle (OASP)
L. Simmons (OK)
S. Chanderpaul (BAT) (C)
K. Edwards (BAT)
Darren Bravo (BAT)
M. Paul (BAT)
S. Burton (BAT)
K. Pollard (ALL)
R. Hinds (ASP)
D. Smith (ALL)
A. Russell (ALL)
S. Narine (SPIN)
K. Roach (SEAM)
D. Bishoo (SPIN)
N. Pascal (SEAM)

As I'm sure you'll recognise, we've 2 new faces in the squad, both batsmen, trying to find the elusive replacement for the old guard. Blackwood has scored only 193 runs in 11 ODI innings to date, and so two guys slip ahead of him in the queue. Mike Paul, age 23 is a regen who had a good start to his career last year, scoring 531 runs including a century in the domestic competition. Shane Burton is 20, and played all of his 13 one day matches since the game started, averaging 46.8 in this form and being aggressive.

Team News - Edwards, Paul, Pollard and Pascal miss out from the 15, with 20 year old Shane Burton making his début at 5.

[Imager36]

And a good win in the first ODI.



Having lost the toss, we batted first. Gayle was, unfortunately, out to the 4th ball of the innings for a duck. The next partnership was the big one in our innings. It started slowly, but gathered momentum as it continued. In the end it was worth a stonking 186 runs, as Simmons proved his worth again and Shiv showed he's still, of course, got it. Darren Bravo managed 34 from 32 balls in a smash toward the end of the innings too. Burton should not be judged for getting stumped for 5 as he was simply trying to add quick runs, and Hinds, Smith, Russell, Roach and Bishoo should also be forgiven, as on any other day one of them would have fired. 250 seemed about par though.

Maneshan was out to a fantastic 2nd slip catch early on, and with the fall of Mathews, the Lankans were 22/2. Perera rebuilt the innings, however, and his 88 came from 117 balls. The main problem was that the other players did not really hang around long enough to give him a chance to do anything except panic, and wickets 7, 8 and 9 all went in 4 balls to Kemar Roach. Russell picked up the last man, and it was all convincing.

Series State - West Indies lead the series 1-0.
Batting Award - Simmons/Shiv - Pretty much the same pace, pretty much the same amount of runs, these two set the bulk of the total for the Sri Lankans.
Bowling Award - Andre Russell - Bowled just under 7 overs and took 4 wickets, 3 of them being the top 3. Good performance, as ever.

Team News - None.

[Imager36]

And a good win in the second ODI.



Lost the toss again, but batting first doesn't really seem to be harming us at the moment. Gayle and Simmons put on 71 before Simmons fell, for 40, and Chanderpaul was once more brought to the crease. Gayle and Chanderpaul managed 99 together, in about 14 overs, which really put us in charge of the game and helped after our slow start. After Gayle was gone, his 77 coming from 95, Chanderpaul continued exploding, and when he was out, closing following Darren who got 19, and Burton and Hinds took over. The latter made a useful cameo of 26 from 15, before Smith came in and got 12 from 7, but Burton, in his second ODI, managed an unbeaten 41 from 25 balls, after a shaky start, to prove he may be able to cut it at this level.

Wickets fell at regular intervals for the Lankans, with Perera and Mathews both going early for single figures, and they never really looked in the hunt after that. Narine came on for the middle overs and, whilst being more expensive than usual, picked up 5 wickets and made sure none of the men in blue could get settled into chasing at, by the time he was on, over 7 an over.

Series State - West Indies win the series 2-0 with 1 match to play.
Batting Award - Shiv Chanderpaul - Far speedier than Gayle in this instance, and, as usual, a heavy run scorer.
Bowling Award - Sunil Narine - 5 wickets. No more, no less.

Team News - Well, we've won the series, and you should know by now my policy when that happens. Edwards, Paul, Pollard and Pascal replace Gayle, Darren, Bishoo and Roach, with Chanderpaul left to open, Edwards at 3, Burton at 4 and débutante Paul at 5. Pollard, Hinds, Smith and Russell form a pretty tasty lower-order.

[UTBash]

Loving the story so far, it's my favourite. How will you combat the retirement of Chanderpaul which should be sooner rather than later?

[Imager36]

We really should have won this.



We started the bowling well, but Smith and Pollard's 5 overs each went for a bag of runs. Narine and Hinds were exceptionally impressive in the middle overs, the 20 overs between them going for 3 wickets and 55 runs, at only 2.75 runs an over. Pascal and Russell returned for the final overs, and were very impressive, taking two wickets each so that we bowled them out with the last ball of the innings.

Simmons, Edwards and Burton were all out for small scores, but Chanderpaul had put on the runs as such that when Burton was out, we were 72/3. Paul came in and hit 2 sixes in the first over he faced, but continued in a more sedate manner as he hit only one further boundary and was out for 26 from 44 balls. Pollard hit an aggressive 29 from 31 balls, but 2 balls after he was out, Chanderpaul joined him, whilst still needing 17 from 14 balls. Smith and Russell came in and tried their hardest, but did not make it, unfortunately.

Series State - West Indies win the series 3-2.
Batting Award - Shiv Chanderpaul - 95 from 148 balls. Good guy, as usual.
Bowling Award - Narine/Hinds - Did a very good job in the middle overs, kept the runs way down... shame the batsmen couldn't make it.

Squad News - Dwayne Bravo and Ramnaresh Sarwan come into the squad for Nelon Pascal and Kirk Edwards.

Team News - Edwards, Pascal, Paul, Hinds and Pollard are replaced by Gayle, Darren Bravo, Sarwan, Dwayne Bravo and Bishoo.

Loving the story so far, it's my favourite. How will you combat the retirement of Chanderpaul which should be sooner rather than later?

Thank you It's a a tough one, that. Chanders has been absolutely massive for me in all cricket, and he'll be 39 by the end of the season. It's sort of why I'm trying to blood these batsmen - Blackwood, Paul and Burton - in one day cricket, so one of them may be able to take his test place at the start of next year. In terms of the number 3 spot, I think Darren Bravo will be the one promoted due to his youth and yet skill. Before that, of course, Chanderpaul needs just over 100 runs to be the highest ODI scorer for the Windies ever, and just over 1200 runs for the same thing in tests. To do that in only 8 tests really is pushing it, but unless he wants to last another season, he'll have to!

[UTBash]

Thank you It's a a tough one, that. Chanders has been absolutely massive for me in all cricket, and he'll be 39 by the end of the season. It's sort of why I'm trying to blood these batsmen - Blackwood, Paul and Burton - in one day cricket, so one of them may be able to take his test place at the start of next year. In terms of the number 3 spot, I think Darren Bravo will be the one promoted due to his youth and yet skill. Before that, of course, Chanderpaul needs just over 100 runs to be the highest ODI scorer for the Windies ever, and just over 1200 runs for the same thing in tests. To do that in only 8 tests really is pushing it, but unless he wants to last another season, he'll have to!

He certainly isn't past it yet anyway so hopefully he can do it! Bravo is good in the game, he's done well against my England side! Just finished the West Indian tour in my story check it out when you have time

[Imager36]

How dreadfully disappointing.



The bowling was good, apart from Russell's first over, which went for 18, and Sunil Narine, who was unusually expensive throughout. Dwayne and Dwayne were both very economical, and finished the innings off well, after Gayle took 2/6 in the one over, and restricted the Lankans to a total we felt was well below par.

We made a decent start, at around 7 an over, and making it to 53/1. Then, 4 wickets fell for 9 runs, Chanderpaul, Gayle, Sarwan and Burton, and we were on the back foot at 62/5. Darren put on 20 with Dwayne Smith, and then got into a good partnership with his brother. From the last 12 balls, we needed 19 runs. The over from Jayaweera went for 9, so we needed 10 from the last over. Single. Dot. Single. 8 from 3 required. Darren slashes across the line, and is somehow caught behind. Russell comes straight in and thwacks a 4. 4 from 1 needed. Hits him on the pads, we lose the match. Shame.

Series State - Sri Lanka lead the series 1-0, 1 match to play.
Batting Award - Bravo/Bravo - Could equally go to Gayle, but these two resurrected a dead innings.
Bowling Award - Devendra Bishoo - Took the wickets of Mathews, Serasinghe and Sangakkara to leave the Lankans in trouble, and only conceded 27 in the process.

Team News - None. If we win the next match, we'll be rolling in a point.

He certainly isn't past it yet anyway so hopefully he can do it! Bravo is good in the game, he's done well against my England side! Just finished the West Indian tour in my story check it out when you have time

Haha, I noticed, I've been lurking on your story already and I like what I see. I'll go and comment in... well, before you read this, actually.

[Imager36]

A very simple win, in the end.



I didn't think we actually bowled that well, really. Whilst the 11 overs of spin that were used were economical, we never really took the quantity of wickets that I expected was needed for that restriction to take place. Smith was the only of the seamers to bowl his full complement, and was the most economical of those.

147 seemed like an average total, and it seemed better than that when Gayle fell for 7 from 9 balls. Chanderpaul, and especially Simmons, though, were brilliant, and their partnership was worth 128, taking the scores to be tied, and Darren finished the match off next ball.

Series State - Series tied 1-1.
Batting Award - Lendl Simmons - Arguably our 3rd most valuable limited overs player (after Chanders and Narine), solves both the wicketkeeper and opener problems, and has batted well and aggressively. Not far away from a test recall.
Bowling Award - Devendra Bishoo - Didn't take a wicket, but went for only 23 runs from his 4.

Next up, it's the visit of Pakistan, beginning with a 2 test match series. The squad news is that Brendan Nash is out for 4 weeks, so Ronnie Sarwan, in form for Leicestershire, replaces him in the squad. He's the man to miss out from the XI though, so that is the same as for the first test of the year. That is, in case you've forgotten, Gayle, Powell, Shiv, Edwards, Darren, Dwayne, Ramdin, Russell, Rampaul, Bishoo and Narine.

[Imager36]

Looks like good Pakistan turned up



We won the toss and I chose to bat first, which it soon became obvious was a mistake. The weather was poor on the first day, and the pitch good for seamers, but I still felt that, as both sides have strong spinners, batting 4th would be tricky. Soon, however, we were 53/3, with Powell and the important Gayle and Chanderpaul back in the hutch. Kirk Edwards was imperious throughout his innings, but unfortunately no-one could stick with him for long enough to make our total respectable. The Bravos and Russell all got starts, but none of them pushed on like Kirk did. He eventually got out for 88 trying to defend Bishoo from the strike.

We felt we could make the test fairly even after the first innings though, and more so after we reduced the Pakistanis to 52/3, and latterly 123/5. Asad Shafiq played the Edwards role, but Haider, Shah and Riaz were all able to stay with him for a reasonable length of time, which gave them a decent lead after one innings each. None of the bowlers were particularly impressive, as all took a lot of overs to get their respective wickets.

Our second innings started much more promisingly, and at one stage we were 185/3, looking like we might set Pakistan around 200 and have every chance of nicking a win. However, 3 quick wickets fell, leaving us with little chance, and we left them needing under 100 to win.

Despite us reducing them to 6/2, they managed to proceed with ease and win the match as so. We need to win the second test to retain our ranking points for this series.

Series State - Pakistan lead 1-0 with 1 match to play.
Batting Award - Kirk Edwards - Led the charge in both innings, and was the only batsman to live up to or surpass expectations.
Bowling Award - Andre Russell - Impressed me more than Bishoo did in a match where his pace blasted the openers twice.

Team News - No changes. We need to win for the sake of the series, and whilst Dwayne Bravo should look around nervously with 1 wicket from 3 matches this year, there is no all round option who is his equal, and replacing him with Sarwan would be a defensive option.

[Imager36]

Oh, no, wait, bad Pakistan.



I lost the toss this time - my preferred option now in tests - and proceeded to bowl first. Rampaul took an early wicket, but we made no further inroads with the new ball, as Shehzad and Shafiq built and it felt like the first test again. From 144/1, though, a flurry of wickets fell, leaving Pakistan 206/7 before Alam combined with Riaz and Daud to boost them to respectability.

We were soon 34/2 as both openers fell early, but a good partnership once more between Kirk and Shiv made sure we'd be competitive. After those two, Darren, Denesh, Russell, Rampaul and Bishoo all got starts, but only Ramdin pushed on to make anything like the score we wanted him to make, and 49 was at least one short of that. We trailed by 34, but we knew that was by no means insurmountable.

It was looking it, however, as Shafiq and Younis Khan were in partnership, at one point at 136/2. The openers had been removed quickly by Russell, but luckily after that partnership, bad Pakistan were arisen, and the collapse dragged them only as far as 195 all out. Sohail hung on for grim death and, batting at number 5, managed 33 not out. That shows you the severity of the collapse, really!

We knew 230 could be tricky if we made a bad start, so it was a relief when Haider dropped Powell on 5. In the end he only made 31, but it would have sent the momentum the other way. Shiv made 24, Kirk 37, Darren a first ball duck, and Dwayne 20 not out. Gayle was, however, the man who led the charge. His unbeaten 111 came from 202 balls, and was his 18th Test century, and his 5th for me. Point secured.

Series State - Series tied 1-1.
Batting Award - Chris Gayle - Had he got out, we would have been in trouble, and a total of 230 could have looked challenging on a 4th/5th day pitch.
Bowling Award - Sunil Narine - Was adequate in the first innings, but in the second he instigated the collapse that led to a match win.

Right, now, a series of 5 ODIs against Pakistan. As a reminder, we lost the last series here against them in 2011. Also, Lendl Simmons is, unfortunately, out for a fortnight with a broken keeping finger. A 15 man squad follows.

C. Gayle (OASP)
S. Burton (BAT)
S. Chanderpaul (BAT)
K. Edwards (BAT)
Darren Bravo (BAT)
M. Paul (BAT)
K. Pollard (ALL)
R. Hinds (ASP)
M. Browne (K)
D. Smith (ALL)
A. Russell (ALL)
D. Bishoo (SPIN)
K. Roach (SEAM)
S. Narine (SPIN)
N. Pascal (SEAM)

Yep. M. Browne. Max Browne is a regen 19 year old keeper batsman who plays for Barbados. To minimize the pressure on him, he'll be batting below some of the all-rounders in this, his first bit of international duty. Shane Burton will be moving up to open the innings, for this series only, as he has a slight pace preference, and to see how he copes in this arena.

Team News - Paul, Smith, Bishoo and Pascal are the men to miss out on the first XI, leaving Browne down to come in at 8 as we revert to 5 main bowlers and Gayle. Edwards plays ahead of Paul due to his great form in the tests.

NOTE - If any of you remember the first Golden Isles story, you'll remember that I got rather too attached to a young regen keeper called Ian Flokes. I sense Browne being the new Flokes if he's not careful.

[Imager36]

This was looking close until their 42nd over.



Having lost the toss, we batted. Gayle and Burton made 63 before the first wicket, with Gayle ending on 41, and Burton battling to 32. Shiv was run out early on, but Kirk and Darren took on the innings and raised the tempo in their partnership of 70. Edwards was then run out for 42 from 41, and Darren went soon after for 36 from 29. Hinds was out soon after, and Browne and Pollard shared a run a ball stand of 47, with Browne out for 24 from 25 on début. Russell fell earlier than expected, but Roach hung on at the end, and Pollard struck some fearful blows to take us over 250.

We were taking regular wickets, and I felt we were in charge of the match before that fateful over, but it finished it off rather nicely. First ball, Shafiq is caught in the deep by Darren Bravo. Normal. Second ball, Shah takes 2 simply. The remaining 4 balls are all wickets, 1 caught deep, 2 caught mid off, and 1 LBW. Golden ducks for Riaz, Daud and Ajmal.

Series State - West Indies lead 1-0 with 4 to play.
Batting Award - Kieron Pollard - 46 not out from 40 balls, really helped push us to that score.
Bowling Award - Andre Russell - Argue the case for anyone else. Go on.

Team News - Nelon Pascal replaces Ryan Hinds. Who said the West Indies had lost their pace?

[Imager36]

We made it harder than it was.



Won the toss, and so bowled. Russell, Roach and Pascal all added an early wicket to their tallies, but Shafiq dominated partnerships with Alam, Khan and Ahmed to put his side back in the hunt at 195/5 when he was out to Pollard. Pollard took 3 further quick wickets, after which a partnership developed with Narine and Russell bowling. Pollard returned and disposed of both the partners to end the innings with 3 overs left to bowl.

Burton was out third ball to Nadir, in his first ODI match. Gayle and Chanderpaul made 58 together before Chris was out, and Edwards joined Shiv for another 80 runs, continuing their series of good partnerships this summer. When Shiv was out, Darren Bravo quickly followed, but Edwards built good partnerships with Pollard (24) and Browne (16) before chipping one tamely back to Saeed Ajmal, with the team needing only 4 more. Browne was also out, LBW, but Roach and Russell brought it home.

Series State - West Indies lead 2-0 with 3 to play.
Batting Award - Kirk Edwards - Stuck around with the lower order to all but win the match for us.
Bowling Award - Kieron Pollard - In the last few overs, all he touched turned to wickets as he dismissed the last 5.

Team News - None.

[Imager36]

We won, but only with 3 balls to spare!



With the four seamers operating at the start, and then in rotation alongside Narine in overs 20-40, wickets kept falling. This meant Pakistan were never really able to gain the momentum they wanted, and thus a big total was never on the cards. Russell and Pascal were the bowlers to finish the innings off, and they did so with ease, taking the last 4 wickets quickly to strand the Pakistanis below 200.

We got off to a good, if a moderately paced one. Gayle put on 22, and the partnership was worth 52, followed by Shiv coming to the crease and Burton falling for 35. Shiv was unfortunately a little one-paced, and his 65 not out came off 117 balls, as he failed to accelerate even when it was needed at the end. Kirk Edwards was even worse, managing 19 from 58 balls, and Darren and Pollard fell quickly to leave the result in doubt. The unbroken partnership was worth 40, of which Browne made 29 from 30 balls to guide us to victory.

Series State - West Indies win the series 3-0 with 2 to play.
Batting Award - Max Browne - Nerves of steel, and Shiv was far too slow.
ShivStats - That was his 5th half century in 6 innings this year, and that one took him above Brian Lara to be the top West Indian run scorer in ODIs, in exactly the same number of matches, but from 6 fewer innings and with a higher average. Chris Gayle is only 1300 behind though, and may have time on his side in that regard.
Bowling Award - Andre Russell - 3/26 from 9 overs. Fewer wickets than Pascal, but less expensive.

Team News - For the dead rubbers, Mike Paul comes in for Kirk Edwards at 4, and Dwayne Smith comes in for Kemar Roach, and bats below Browne at 8, with Gayle likely to bowl more.