West Indies going for the sweep
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
ST GEORGE‘S, Grenada (AFP): West Indies will
be looking to bring out the figurative broom, when they face Bangladesh in the
third and final one-day International cricket match on Wednesday here.
West Indies unconvincingly won the past weekend's double-header at Kingstown -
a fortress for West Indies in ODI cricket with only one loss in 15 matches -
to clinch only their second ODI series triumph at home in the last nine
competitions. Under the leadership of
Ramnaresh Sarwan, deputising for the injured Brian Lara, West Indies won
Saturday's opener by one wicket with 20 balls to spare and claimed Sunday's
match by 23 runs. Both matches underscored
the mediocrity of the two teams, but it was Bangladesh that came away with
their reputations enhanced showing immense fighting qualities, particularly
when they were in the field. The batting on
both sides remains tenuous and will again be the area that the two teams will
have to focus upon if they are to achieve their objectives for this match.
West Indies made heavy weather of reaching a modest target of 145 in the
opening match and they laboured to 124 for seven the next day in a match
reduced to 25 overs-a-side. "We've been
brilliant in fielding and bowling, but I am a bit concerned about the
batting," Sarwan admitted. "We didn't bat as
well as we wanted to for the past two matches. Hopefully, when the third match
comes, we'll be able to bat better. We fell down in that department.
"We have a young set of players. I'm sure
that it is time for them to mature and, hopefully, they'll be able to do that
as quickly as possible." The raw pace and
hostility of opening bowlers Fidel Edwards and Tino Best proved too much for
the visitors to handle, but they can take heart in knowing that West Indies
were incapable of bowling them out in either match.
Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar stated
that he was looking to avoid defeat in this final match because there are two
Test matches still to follow. The visitors
want to show that they have some character to prevent a steamrolling at Gros
Islet and Kingston in the longer version of the game.
West Indies have named an unchanged squad of 13 from which their final 11 will
be selected, deciding not to press injured record-breaking batsman Lara back
into service just yet.
Squads:
West Indies (from): Ramnaresh Sarwan (captain), Tino Best, Ian Bradshaw,
Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Fidel Edwards, Chris Gayle, Ridley
Jacobs, Sylvester Joseph, Ricardo Powell, Ravi Rampaul, Devon Smith, Dwayne
Smith. Bangladesh (from): Habibul Bashar
(captain), Mohammad Ashraful, Tareq Aziz, Tapash Baisya, Faisal Hossain,
Shahariar Hossain, Manjural Islam, Alok Kapali, Khaled Mahmud, Khaled Mashud,
Mohammad Rafique, Mushfiqur Rahman, Abdur Razzak, Rajin Saleh, Hannan Sarkar.
Umpires: David Shepherd, Billy Doctrove, TV
Replays: Eddie Nicholls, Reserve: Glenroy Jones.
Match Referee: Roshan Mahanama
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