Tony Becca, Consulting Editor
THE SEVEN-MATCH one-day international series between the West Indies and England ended at Kensington on Wednesday and after losing the four-match Test series 3-0 the home team should be pleased with the result.
With three matches abandoned due to rain, the West Indies won two and England two for a two-two tie, and although it would not have compensated for their performance in the Test series, victory for the West Indies would have been really satisfying.
Could the West Indies have won the series?
With the team batting second winning all four matches, victory was unlikely. The West Indies, however, did have a wonderful opportunity to win the first match after batting first, they should have won it, and they probably are still kicking themselves for allowing it to get away.
In a match reduced to 30 overs because of rain, the West Indies appeared to be easing to victory before Chris Read moved into pacer Corey Collymore in the penultimate over.
REASON
That was unfortunate, and for one simple reason. Bowling at the end of one-day internationals is not easy and is never easy not with the batting team having nothing to lose, not with batsmen throwing their bats at everything, and not when luck is going their way.
That, however, was not the case in the final match when pacer Mervyn Dillon was spanked for 67 runs off nine overs. That was simply a case of the batsmen, at the beginning when they were setting up the chase and at the end when victory was obvious, preening themselves against mediocre bowling.
In a series dominated by batsman, England won that first match in Guyana, the West Indies won the fifth and sixth after scoring 284 for five off 48 overs and 282 for six off 47.1 replying to England's 281 for eight and 280 for eight, and after trailing two-one, England won the seventh and final match when they chipped to 262 for five off 47.2 replying to the West Indies 261 for six.
Although the West Indies went so close to winning the first match, the toss, therefore, was obviously important to the results, and if the toss was so important, may be it is just as well there was not a fifth match.
Unlike the first three Test matches that were played on bowler-friendly pitches, the toss was so important because the matches were played on good batting pitches, because the bowling on both sides, and particularly so on the West Indies side, was far from impressive and because both teams boasted some good attacking batsmen.
In such conditions, in such circumstances, the team batting second, the team chasing a target, always has the advantage.
EXPERIENCE
From a West Indian point of view, the important thing, therefore, was what did the West Indies gain from the exercise, and looking toward World Cup 2007, they gained a lot.
With youngsters Dwayne Smith and Dwayne Bravo, who are also quite good with the ball and in the field, performing well with the bat, the series suggested that the West Indies have a batting line-up that could develop into a strong force by the time the World Cup comes around.
As they found out in the last match, however, scoring runs is one thing, restricting the opposition is something else, and apart from finding one or two more all-rounders, apart from remembering that David Bernard Jnr is still around, apart from recognising the gifts of one like Daren Sammy, what they need to do now is to develop a set of bowlers, including one or two spinners, in time for 2007.
Dillon, for example, should have played his final one-day international. Apart from his age, it should be obvious by now that he is too inconsistent, that he is not a competitor, and that both things are important in limited-over matches.
