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WI v Zim : 4th ODI

Sunday, November 30 2003

It was a fantastic day for the West Indies as they stormed back in the fourth ODI to level the five-game series against Zimbabwe at 1-1. Fidel Edwards produced a stunning spell of bowling to destroy the Zimbabwean top order, while achieving the best debut figures in ODI cricket history. His bowling was sharp length-wise and in line and his pace reached the 150 km/h mark while settling over 145 km/h. However, the biggest factor to success for Edwards was the late swing which he exploited on a pitch which had been juiced by the moisture of rain.

Heath Streak won the toss for the first time in the series and elected to bowl first. That decision was quickly made to look horrific when Chris Gayle (51) lay into the Zimbabwe bowlers. Following a couple of big aerial edges to third man for four, Gayle started to really look the part, hitting Streak for 14 runs in 3 balls at one time. Those runs included a superb flick off the hip over the rope at long leg. Gayle's fifty went up on the scoreboard off just 30 balls, but 4 balls later he was brilliantly caught by a full stretch Taibu after trying to run Ervine down the third man.

Brian Lara came to the crease to join Hinds, who had begun to open up his shoulders after starting rather cautiously. The West Indies captain looked a bit over-eager and was ultimately dismissed looking to run a Brent delivery to third man - 124/2. So often in the past Lara's demise has caused problems for the West Indian batting line-up, but this time was an exception. Sarwan, though clearly out of form, stuck around with Hinds and eventually began to look more comfortable at the crease. Hinds reached his half-century facing 78 balls but then accelerated to guide his 127th delivery to third man for his hundredth run. Sarwan was out in the 43rd over after hitting cutting Streak hard to be caught on the cover boundary by Vermeulen. He made 47 off 66 balls.

Chanderpaul strolled out, but didn't see much action as Hinds did most of work in adding 25 more runs between them before rain caused a lengthy delay after the 45th over. When the rain stopped, the West Indies innings was announced closed on 256/3 with Wavell Hinds unbeaten on 127 from 141 balls. He found the boundary on ten occasions and cleared it on four. Sean Ervine (10-1-49-1) proved the best of the bowlers for the home side.

Due to time lost, Zimbabwe were set to 223 runs from 32 overs in a working of the D/L method. After Dillon performed the opening act, bowling the maiden over of the innings, it was time for the 'Edwards Show' to begin. Fidel 'Who' Edwards charged in a delivered a perfect inswinging yorker to the left-handed Barney Rogers (0) sending his middle stump cart-wheeling toward Jacobs. The perfect start to an ODI career was about to get even better when Edwards had Sibanda looking horribly deficient in getting himself caught behind by Jacobs for 7 with the second ball of his second over. Wishart came and went the very next ball trapped plumb in front to an inswinger from the debutant - 10/3.

After beating the bats of Matsikenyeri and Vermeulen on a couple of occasions, Edwards claimed his fourth wicket in his third over. Vermeulen failed to do anything but fend a sharp bouncing delivery to Chanderpaul at gully - 15/4. Another over and another wicket as Matsikenyeri looked to work a ball to the legside and was defeated by extra bounce, succeeding only in giving the simplest of catches to Corey Collymore at midon and a 5-wicket haul to Edwards - 22/5. Edwards had taken 5 wickets with his first 28 legal balls in ODI cricket, an astonishing feat.

After giving Edwards one more over, Lara introduced spin into the equation in an attempt to get the innings through the 25th over which constitutes a cricket match if rain were to fall again. Streak slashed Gayle straight to Chanderpaul at point to leave Zimbabwe in complete shambles a 47/6, needing 176 more runs from 97 balls for victory. Taibu and Ervine set about to bat for as long as possible, realizing that victory was well out of their grasp. The two took advantage of Lara's ploy to get through the overs quickly by scoring runs freely off of Powell and Rampaul. Taibu in particular played well with the shot of his innings being a lovely aerial straight drive off the bowling of Powell, played with minimal effort and more timing that power.

He reached his milestone having faced 75 balls and finding the rope six times and managed to cross 500 runs in his ODI career along the way. Upon the completion of the 29th over, Edwards returned to bowl his final two overs. Ervine and Taibu took 9 runs of the first, but with the second ball of the final over of the innings, Taibu went for a cross-batted heave and when he missed Edwards hit, bowling him for a very well-played 66. Edwards' 6/22 is the best ODI haul by a player on debut and it complements his 5/37 on Test debut earlier this year.

The Zimbabwean innings closed on 150/7 with Ervine unbeaten on 37 from 44 balls and Blignaut on 1. Hence the West Indies won the match by 72 runs via the Duckworth/Lewis system. Naturally Edwards was named the Man of the Match despite the impressive work of Hinds earlier in the game.

The fifth and final ODI will be played tomorrow also at Harare Sports Club.

Match Summary:
West Indies 256/3 (45 overs)
(Wavell Hinds 127 [141], Chris Gayle 51 [34], Ramnaresh Sarwan 47 [66])
(Heath Streak 1/46 [8], Sean Ervine 1/49 [10], Gary Brent 1/65 [9])
Zimbabwe (Revised target of 223 from 32 overs) 150/7 (32 overs)
(Tatenda Taibu 66 [85], Sean Ervine 37 not out [44])
(Fidel Edwards 6/22 [7], Chris Gayle 1/17 [7])
Result: West Indies won by 72 runs (D/L)
Series: 2-2
Man of the Match: Fidel Edwards (WI)

Posted by Liam