Post
by BobHelm » September 25, 2017, 8:06 am
3rd. of the 1 day Internationals yesterday - from Bristol.
The Gloucester County cricket ground is in the middle of a housing estate, small & just about my least favourite county ground..
England easily won the first ODI & the second was a complete weather wash out.
With some sort of truce made between the 'play abroad' players & the West Indian cricket authorities it was generally accepted that the visitors would provide a much tougher trial in this form of the game than they generally did in the Test matches.
England were put into bat & stuttered to 74 for 3 until Stokes & Root steadied the ship. It was starting to look like a good score in view when England contrived to lose another 3 wickets for 11 runs that saw them at 217 for 6.
That bought Moeen & Woakes to the wicket & they, again, steadied the ship. Moeen moved along nicely at a run a ball to 39 before he suddenly cut loose with a savage display of batting. His move from 50 to 100 took only 12 deliveries. Admittedly the West Indies should have dismissed him earlier than they eventually did but it was a fine knock for 102.
Innings closed at a massive 369 for 9.
However the West Indies open with one of the biggest hitters in the game - Chris Gayle. While he remained at the crease there was always hope. He stayed there until he was run out for 94 & the hope vanished.
West Indies all out for 245 & can now only draw the series.
Meanwhile, in India, the hosts moved to a 1 day series win over Australia with 2 games to spare.
Australia put on a good enough show to set a target of 294 with Finch (124) & Smith (63) being the stand out scorers.
Batting in India is India's forte though & they ran that off with a couple of overs to spare for the loss of 5 wickets.
The win was enough to put India back to the top of the 1 day rankings, over South Africa.