Related Links : ICC Champions Trophy 2006 : Scorecard
The ICC Champions Trophy 2006 in India witnessed yet another one-sided affair for the fourth time in a row with the Windies thrashing Bangladesh by 10 wickets. Nobody at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium nor the people watching the match will be greatly disappointed at the no-contest as Chris Gayle’s power packed hundred was worth all the money and was a true spectacle under the glowing lights. Three towering sixes along with 11 boundaries had come from the left hander which got the crowd on their feet. It was no surprise that Chris Gayle ended up with a second consecutive Man of the Match award in this tournament.
A warm day greeted the players for the first Champions Trophy match being played in the Pink City, Jaipur. Bangladesh were off to a winning start with Habibul Bashar beating Brian Lara when it came to Heads and Tails. Bangladesh went with the same side that had played against Sri Lanka while Windies brought in Corey Collymore at the expense of Dwayne Smith. The Asian minnows decided to bat first under ideal batting conditions and looked to set up a decent total to give their bowlers something to bowl at. However Ashraful provided a disastrous start as he selected a pull shot against a ball that wasn’t short and kept low from Jerome Taylor. Ashraful was struck low on the pads finishing with an awkward looking stroke. Aftab Ahmed joined Shahriar Nafees and all of a sudden the Tigers and its fans were jumping with joy as the one drop batsman, Aftab began to play some great shots. Jerome Taylor was hit out of the attack by the short Aftab who swung the bat to play some clean shots in the air. Aftab was also dropped by Marlon Samuels at deep square leg which only gave him another opportunity to continue the onslaught. Inspired by his partner, Shahriar as well brought up some good shots and just when the partnership looked threatening, Shahriar departed cutting Samuels to the slip. The left handed opener made 38 from 68 with 5 fours to put up 85 for the second wicket.
Corey Collymore, the first change bowler for West Indies changed the complexion of the match by giving a double blow to Bangladesh dismissing Saqibul Hasan and Habibul Bashar in consecutive deliveries. While Saqibul dragged his expansive drive onto his stumps, Bashar fell across the line to get rapped up in front of middle. The scoreboard which was going on at an impressive rate now read 96 for 4 in the 21st over! It was soon 107 for 5 with the set batsman Aftab Ahmed throwing it away after reaching a personal score of 59. Aftab lofted Samuels safely into Chanderpaul’s hands at long on and his 59 which had come in just 55 balls with 7 fours and 2 sixes was just good for the highlights package more than anything else. Bangladesh crashed to 161 as they could never recover from the jolts. All the tail enders along with Khaled Mashud could do was to prolong the innings and keep the West Indies fielders waiting. It took 46.3 overs for Windies to bowl out Bangladesh. Dwayne Bravo picked up three and the trio of Taylor, Collymore and Samuels took two wickets apiece.
It was a cakewalk for West Indies, the target was hardly anything and they had to bat terribly if they had to lose this one. Bangladeshi medium pacers Mashrafe Mortaza and Syed Rasel got the respect from Gayle and Chanderpaul early on but once Gayle got his eye in, there was no stopping of the Gayle Power. But the spinners who were brought in early, Abdur Razzak and Mohammad Rafique were successful in pegging back the scoring rate and the two left handers started to pick the singles rather than go for the biggies. Gayle couldn’t keep himself quiet for a long time and he waited for sometime before carrying out another brutal attack on the poor bowlers. Habibul Bashar took Abdul Razzak off and brought in Farhad Reza to bowl his slow medium pacers and he was taken to the cleaners by Gayle who whacked him for four boundaries. Farhad Reza’s replacement in the next over was Aftab Ahmed who was taken for 12 runs and by then Windies were in touching distance to the target of 162. There were a couple of milestones that Windies wanted to achieve before getting to 162 which they did with Chanderpaul getting to his 40th ODI fifty and Chris Gayle notching up his 13th ODI hundred. Gayle was not out on 104 from 118 balls and Chanderpaul was too slow getting his 52 not out from 104 balls but he showed some unbelievable timing to get 6 boundaries. The target was reached by West Indies with 80 deliveries to spare and with all the 10 wickets intact.
Bangladesh could have posted something over 200 and may be even 250 had Aftab Ahmed carried onto make a hundred with support from the other batsmen. But it wasn’t any smart cricket played by Bangladesh as it lost its last eight wickets for just 66 runs. They will be the favourites though to win their next outing which is on the 13th as they take on Zimbabwe. West Indies will be happy with the discipline they had shown with the ball as they bowled five wides and there wasn’t a single no ball bowled! Their batting looks to be solid but they are a few players down the order who haven’t had a feel in the middle yet.