The West Indies cricket fans have again been profoundly embarrassed by the team’s performance in an international Series! An occurrence which has now long since become the norm rather than an exception. The West Indies 0-3 loss to Bangladesh in its recently concluded Series, a team which not so long ago was considered to be a mere minnow, is just the latest episode of what has within recent times seemingly become an annual saga of embarrassing defeats at the hands of international opponents.
The 0-3 result extended the West Indies run of successive ODI losses to Bangladesh to a whopping 11. What was even more embarrassing for the West Indies than the actual 0-3 “Banglawash” Series score line was the size and manner of their defeats in the three matches played, particularly the first two. The West Indies lost the first ODI by 6 wickets with 55 balls remaining, the second by an even wider margin of 9 wickets with 176 deliveries still available.
The margin of defeat in the third and final ODI was a much more respectable 4 wickets with nine balls remaining. West Indies supporters may, therefore, now find some small measure of comfort from the reality that the size of the loss for the third and final ODI was not nearly as large as it was for the first two.
The West Indies posted totals in each of the matches provide as graphic an illustration as necessary as to the exact reasons why they were on the losing side for all three encounters. The West Indies scored 149/9 in the 41 overs of batting that were allowed during the rain-affected first ODI. Their total for the full 50 overs of the second ODI was a dismal 108-10/35. A failure by as many as 15 overs to fully utilize the 50 that were available. In the third ODI, the West Indies scored 178/10-48.4, falling short yet again of the fundamental limited overs batting objective of fully utilizing every available over.
At this period of contemporary international cricket, when the acceptable first strike par score has been long since established to be 300 plus, the West Indies failed to get even close to 200 in each of their innings. That left Bangladesh’s batsmen having to score at an initial rate of under 4 runs per over in each of three matches.
No matter how good the West Indies bowling attack for the Series might have been, it was never going to be capable of successfully defending such lowly posted totals. Doing so might have presented an insurmountable challenge for even the legendary initial four-prong attack of Messrs. (Andy) Roberts, (Michael) Holding, (Joel) Garner and (Colin) Croft!
The Series averages for the West Indies batsmen also provide very interesting reading. Particularly those of the top order occupants who for some reason may have mistakenly believed that they were participating in Bingo games on behalf of some unnamed Bangladesh Charity! The four batsmen used by the West Indies to occupy the top three positions in their batting order collectively totalled just 116 runs between them.
Kyle Mayers posted scores of 10 and 17 in the two matches he played. His Series tally was 27 runs at an average of 13.50. Even worse were the stats for Shai Hope, supposedly the West Indies’ very best ODI batsman. Hope’s totals were 0, 18 and 2 for his three matches. His aggregate was 20 and his average 6.66. Brandon King, the third opener used, had scores of 8, 11 and 8 which amounted to a tally of 27 runs scored at an average of 9.00. Shamarh Brooks batting at three posted scores of 33, 5 and 4, for a Series aggregate of 42 runs scored at an average of 14.
The repeated failures of the West Indies top-order batsmen resulted in the numbers four and five having to be at the crease with very few runs on the board. Faced with the responsibility of having to restore order to the innings, the West Indies’ middle order batsmen failed miserably at their assigned tasks. As captain Nicholas Pooran may, however, have redeemed himself with his innings of 73 in the final ODI, the highest individual score by any West Indian throughout the entire Series and the only recorded half-century.
Pooran’s two other innings produced scores of 18 and 0, the latter of which was an injudicious attempted reverse sweep off the very first delivery he faced in the second ODI. With the West Indies total tottering at 3/44-17.4 overs at the time of his arrival at the crease, it was not an attempted stroke befitting of any captain, least of all one who had only recently been appointed to the role.
Despite his third ODI heroics, Pooran’s overall Series aggregate was only 91 for an average of 30.33. Apart from Pooran the only other two West Indian batsmen to record Series averages of over 30 were Kacy Carty who scored 33 in the one innings he batted and Kemo Paul whose two crease appearances produced 31 runs. Paul, however, scored 25 not out in the third and final ODI. As such he ended with a somewhat flattering average of 31.00 for his two innings aggregate of the identical number, but with one not out.
There was no such similar flattery in the figures of the West Indies vice-captain Rovman Powell. Batting at number 5, for the most part, Powell posted scores of 9, 13 and 18 in the three innings he played. His Series aggregate was, as a result, a paltry 40 and his average of 13.33 even more befitting of such description.
The West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran’s post-series explanation for his batsmen’s very poor showing was to blame the Providence pitches.
“These pitches are not helping us, “Pooran said. “The most it is doing is frustrating us as a group. It doesn’t matter who we brought into the team; we will struggle on wickets like this!”
With such bingoesque scores having been recorded by their batsmen, the West Indies bowlers at all times faced the impossible task of defending such minuscule totals in all three matches. Guyana’s left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie-Kanhai, who made his debut on the July 10 first ODI, was the most successful of the ten bowlers used by the West Indies. Motie produced Series figures 6/80-26.4 overs. His 6 wickets were taken at an average of 13.33.
Thankfully for the West Indies, as embarrassing as it was the 0-3 Banglawash Series loss was of absolutely no consequence to its ongoing qualification for next year’s India-hosted ICC ODI World Cup. The Series and its results were not designated for World Cup qualification.
Neither for that matter will be the West Indies very next Series, involving three hosted ODI matches against a somewhat depleted Indian Squad. The Indians despite the absence of four of their frontline ODI players, including former captain Virat Kohli, will be expected to provide the West Indies with even sterner opposition than Bangladesh during the three-match Series. The three matches will be played on July 22, 24 and 27. All three matches will be played at Trinidad & Tobago’s Queen’s Park Oval.
Despite the dismal scores they each produced during the Bangladesh Series, all of the aforementioned under-performing West Indies batsmen have again been included in the announced 13-member Squad for the India Series. The inclusion of former West Indies captain Jason Holder is indeed the only change to the squad which played against Bangladesh with such embarrassing results.
With no changes to the batting having been made, the now most likely predictable outcome for the West Indies-India ODI Series could well be a 0-3 repeat, this time under an “Indiawash” headline. West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran might, however, be hoping for his Trinidad Queen’s Park home ground to provide pitches that will be much more to the liking of him and his batsmen!