West Indian batsman Chris Gayle drives a ball from English bowler James Anderson during their Twenty20 game at the Oval in London yesterday. Gayle top-scored for the tourists with 61. – AP

LONDON (CMC):

A LUKEWARM performance let the West Indies down and handed England a five-wicket win in the second Twenty20 international yesterday at the Oval.

The West Indies failed to defend a target of 170, as England hit the jackpot with three balls to spare, when West Indies captain Chris Gayle speared a delivery to Owais Shah down the leg side for four wides.

The victory earned England a share of the two-match series, after West Indies won the opening match on Thursday at the same venue.

Ravi Rampaul took two wickets for 39 runs from his four overs to be the most successful West Indies bowler but Owais Shah led England with an undefeated 55 from 35 balls and added an unbroken 69 for the sixth wicket with Dmitri Mascarenhas.

Earlier, Gayle hit the top score of 61 from 37 balls to lead the visitors to 169 for seven from their allocation of 50 overs.

The West Indies were hamstrung by the loss of left-handers Devon Smith and Shivnarine Chander-paul, their heroes from the first Twenty20 match, and never matched that game's scoring rate.

Paul Collingwood and Ryan Sidebottom snared two wickets apiece.

The West Indies appeared to be in control of the match when they restricted England to 104 for five.

Purposeful batting

But Shah came to the wicket and revived England with purposeful batting. He swung the tide decisively the home team's way when he collected three of his seven fours in the 16th over bowled by Marlon Samuels.

Shah struck two more boundaries off Dwayne Smith next over leaving England with the simple task of gathering 15 from the last two overs.

Earlier, the Windies had a sound base of 49 inside the first six overs from Gayle and Lendl Simmons but wickets at regular intervals, and England's steady bowling, never allowed them to reach the tempo they had set the previous day.

Samuels, with 42 from 20 balls, was the only other West Indies batsman who scored more than 20. The teams play the first of a three-match series of one-day internationals at Lord's tomorrow.

SCORES

West Indies innings

C. Gayle c Broad b Collingwood 61 L. Simmons c Broad b Anderson 9 A. Richards lbw Broad 10 M. Samuels c Mascarenhas b Collingwood 42 D. Ramdin c Collingwood bSidebottom 10 R. Morton c&b Sidebottom 18 D.R. Smith run out 5 D. Bravo not out 0 D. Sammy not out 7 Extras (b1, lb2, w4) 7

TOTAL (for seven wkts - 20 overs) 169

Fall: 1-49 (Simmons,), 2-64 (Richards), 3-108 (Gayle), 4-130 (Samuels), 5-146 (Ramdin), 6-158 (Morton), 7-161 (Smith).

Bowling: Sidebottom 4-0-25-2, Anderson 4-0-27-1, Broad 4-0-31-1, Mascarenhas 3-0-32-0, Yardy 3-0-30-0, Collingwood 2-0-21-2.

England innings

A. Cook b Powell 9 M. Prior b Rampaul 22 J. Trott c Ramdin b Rampaul 2 K. Pietersen c&b Sammy 19 P. Collingwood st Ramdin b Samuels 27 O. Shah not out 55 D. Mascarenhas not out 18 Extras (lb5, w15, nb1) 21 TOTAL (five wkts - 19.3 overs) 173

Fall: 1-25 (Cook), 2-38 (Prior), 3-43 (Trott), 4-68 (Pietersen), 5-104 (Collingwood). Bowling: DR Smith 4-0-38-0, Rampaul 4-0-39-2, Powell 4-0-24-1, Sammy 4-0-27-1, Samuels 3-0-31-1, Gayle 0.3-0-9-0.

Result: England won by five wickets.

Player-of-the-Match: Owais Shah (England)