Windies make 272 for 4

Gayle, Bravo hammer centuries

Chris Dhambarage reporting

Ahemedebad, Saturday - Dashing opener Chris Gayle hammered his 14th one day international century and Dwayne Bravo completed his maiden ton as the West Indies piled up a huge 272 for 4 from their 50 overs in their International Cricket Council Champions Trophy Mini World Cup limited overs cricket tournament Group 'A' final league match against England played at the Saradar Patel Gujarat Stadium in Motera, Ahemedebad here on Saturday.

The defending champions who are hoping to make a clean sweep having already booked a place in the semifinals got their act together well from the start with left hander Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo leading the way.

The left handed Gayle also completed his second hundred in the current tournament and went on to make a splendid 101 from 128 deliveries with the aid of one six and ten boundaries.

Even then this was a more disciplined batting display from Gayle who in his previous outings had really punished the bowling with some big hitting. This time he settled down to play a more responsible innings and was prepared to build on a partnership with his teammate Dwayne Brovo. This pair really came into their own against a lackluster bowling attack and kept the score moving at a steady pace.

In fact the West Indies reached 125 for 1 at the half way stage of the innings and set the pace for a challenging total with Gayle and Bravo both in absolute control of the situation after skipper Brain Lara had won the toss and elected to bat first. Gayle of course departed soon after he had reached the three figure mark after having put on a magnificent third wicket partnership of 174 runs for the second wicket.

Gayle was rather subdued but soon after passing his fifty he decided to open out his shoulders crashing boundaries through the covers with a minimum effort.

They fell short by just five runs from erasing the previous highest second wicket stand of 180 runs held by the South African pair of Herschelle Gibbs and Jacques Kallis against India at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo in 2002. The hard hitting Dwayne Bravo took over from there onwards and carried the West Indies into a strong position with some splendid batting during the last few overs.

He took most of the strike during this period and remained unbeaten on 112 from 124 balls having hoisted one six and struck 14 boundaries.

Together with Ramnaresh Sarwan they added a further 50 runs for the third wicket in just 33 balls. Sarwan also joined in the fun as he plundered a quick fire 29 from 19 balls with the help of one six and three fours.

England of course had early success as they removed the more consistent Shivanarine Chanderpaul for just 13 runs in the seven over. But from there onwards they had to toil hard for success as they were unable to restrict the free scoring West Indian batsmen. Skipper Andrew Flintoff deciding to bowl after a long lay off conceded 27 runs from his five overs but their main strike bowler Anderson was severely punished while giving away as many as 72 runs from his ten overs.

England gave a pathetic display on the field as they succumbed under pressure while giving away too many runs during the latter stages.

WEST INDIES
C. Gayle run out			101
S. Chanderpaul lbw b Lewis	 	 13
D. Bravo not out			112
R. Sarwan c Collingwood b Mahmood	 29
B. Lara b Mahmood			  3
M. Samuels not out	  		  3
Extras (lb-1, nb-1, w-9)		 11
TOTAL (for 4 wickets, 50 overs)		272

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-35, 2-209, 3-259, 4-268.
BOWLING: J. Anderson 10-0-72-0 (w-1), J. Lewis 10-1-35-1 (w-1), 
A. Flintoff 5-0-27-0 (w-1), S. Mahmood 7-0-44-2 (nb-1 w-4),
 M. Yardy 5-1-32-0, J. Dalrymple 10-0-42-0 (w-1), P. Collingwood 3-0-19-0.