Gayle, Dillon and Windies roll

The West Indies began their 2004 Champions Trophy on a high note, by thrashing Bangladesh by 138 runs, but only so on scoreline. Indeed the victory was less than convincing and it saw Bangladesh miss five chances in the field and the West Indies batsmen display hot and cold tendencies at the crease. Still, the results now sets up effectively a quarter-final fixture involving the West Indies and South Africa on Friday. Now tied on points atop Pool B, the two teams will play each other for passage to the semi-finals. As for Bangladesh, their collapse to 131 all out, primarily at the hands of Mervyn Dillon (5/29), means they exit without a point in another disappointing ODI campaign.

Dillon took career-best figures of 5 for 29, his third 5-wicket bag in One Day Internationals, to sink the Bangladeshi ship, chasing 270 to win. All the West Indian bowlers were fruitful in the wicket column, taking a wicket each and Gayle taking 2. Gayle was the Man of the Match more so for his batting though, as he fell 1 run short of his 10th ODI hundred in his team's total of 269/3.

On a pitch with some movement for the bowlers, Rajin Saleh won the toss and elected to field first at the Rose Bowl. The West Indian batsmen played basically in the same gear for most of the innings before picking up the pace heading toward the 40th over and then losing their first wicket at the end of it.

On his return to international cricket, Wavell Hinds (82) was the man down, lofting to longoff where the catch was graciously held. Thus ended a 192-run opening stand, just 8 short of the West Indian record but a world record for any wicket against Bangladesh. Hinds faced 119 balls and struck 8 fours and 2 sixes but was not by any means at his best at the crease. He was lucky to be around so long though because Umpire Jeremy Lloyds missed a clear caught behind off Mahmud's bowling earlier in the piece.

The Bangladeshi bowling was purposeful throughout and disciplined far greater than the final statistics would indicate. There was more overdue reward with the departure of Gayle, caught behind for 99. The left-handed opener faced 132 balls and it was a far from typical Gayle display as it saw only 6 boundaries hit.

At 201/2 Lara entered the playground and made his intentions clear to immediate devastating effect. He hit a four and 2 sixes for a commanding 7-ball cameo of 20 until he was run out backing up due some alert fielding by the bowler Tapash Baisya. Indeed, Baisya had the best day of the Bangladesh players, taking 2/58 and a run out, thus accounting for all West Indian wickets in the game.

Ultimately the Windies closed with 269 runs on the board and Sarwan (30 not out) and Chanderpaul (18 not out) in the middle. The Bangladeshi chase started with 13 runs coming from the first 2 overs, then Dillon drew first blood. With bounce and aggression as his staple, Dillon was the main instigator in Bangladesh slipping to 26/5.

First Javed Omar (2) fended to Sammy in the gully and the youngster took a terrific and thoughtful catch, diving full stretch and tipping the ball upward to enable a rebound grab. Ian Bradshaw enticed Ashraful (10) to find Dillon's hands on the fine leg boundary and it was 15/2. The tall Trinbagonian pacer then turned from catching to bowling once more and knocked back the stumps of Nafis Iqbal (2) then Rajin Saleh (7) - 24/4.

Gayle next dropped Mashud at slip off Dillon and the hero of the day turned the villain, if only briefly. Indeed Mashud was snared in the covers by Sammy the very next delivery and walked back for a duck. Some normalcy was then restored to the proceedings with 45 runs added between Aftab Ahmed (21) and Mushfiqur Rahman (21). After that Mahmud hit an unbeaten topscore of 34 with two fours, but no one else significantly contributed and the route was completed by Gayle, who finished with 2/12.

The West Indies failed to surpass the net run rate of the South Africa's thrashing of Bangladesh earlier in the tournament, which means that if there is enough rain on Saturday, they will be going home. As it is, however, whoever loses the weekend clash will be eliminated and a West Indian win will mean a respectable semi-final birth against either India or Pakistan.

Match Summary:

West Indies innings 269/3 (50 overs)
(CH Gayle 99 [132], WW Hinds 82 [119])
(Tapash Baisya 2/58 [10])

Bangladesh innings 131 ao (39.3 overs)
(Khaled Mahmud 34 not out [51], Mushfiqur Rahman 21 [41], Aftab Ahmed 21 [44])
(M Dillon 5/29 [10], CH Gayle 2/12 [4.3])

Result: West Indies won by 138 runs
Points: WI 2, Bangladesh 0
Man of the Match: CH Gayle (WI)

Posted by Liam