ROY DONE GOOD!
His ton paves way for record England chase
It took something special to overshadow a spectacular display from the ‘ Universe Boss’ here yesterday, but England managed it by chasing down a record target set by West Indies to win the first one-day international by six wickets.
Chris Gayle is not one to sell himself short but he lived up to every hyperbolic word he uttered before this series by smashing 12 sixes, four of them flying clean out of this famous kensington oval ground, in his 135 as West Indies ran riot against England’s World Cup aspirants.
But they were made to pay for a slow start while Gayle cranked up his creaking 39-year-old body as Jason Roy atoned for dropping him before he had barely got going with a quicker century of his own before falling for 123.
the result was an entertaining, thoroughly modern run-fest with England making up for a shoddy display in the field by proving they have the firepower to reach just about any 50-over target.
In all, West Indies smashed 23 sixes off a shell- shocked and sloppy attack, a one-day international record, in their 360 for eight, with seven balls lost somewhere in Bridgetown. they recorded their highest one- day score against England and their best in the Caribbean. But, remarkably, it was not nearly enough as Roy reached three figures off 35 fewer balls than Gayle, then Joe Root led England home and became the fastest Englishman to reach 5,000 one-day runs with the third and perhaps best century of the game.
What a start to the last 50-over series before England must declare their World Cup hand. Firstly there was the figure of Gayle who, when speaking on Sunday, had regaled his audience with a Muhammad Ali style rhetoric in which he called himself ‘the Greatest’ and offered to save the ECB’ s Hundred competition next year single-handedly.
He did not initially look anything like great on his return to West Indies’ 50- over side, starting off with a strike- rate more akin to Geoff Boycott than the Universe Boss.
And it should have been all over for Gayle when he had made just nine from his first 36 balls but Roy dropped what should have been a routine catch off Liam Plunkett.
It still took time for Gayle to warm up as he had made only 21 after 50 balls and went to his 50 off 76. But then he went into overdrive, his first six taking him past Shahid Afridi with a record 477 international maximums, as ball after ball disappeared over the stands.
When Gayle nudged a single off Chris Woakes to reach a run-a-ball hundred, sinking to his knees in celebration and seemingly only just being able to get up again, he had faced an astonishing 55 dot balls but had still provided another masterclass of six hitting.
England had little answer in the field. Mark Wood was again quick, particularly in his first spell when he touched 91mph, but later went for 22 off one over with Gayle hitting him for successive sixes, while Plunkett disappeared for nine an over from his six overs.
Moeen Ali was smashed for four sixes in one over, twice by Gayle and twice by Darren Bravo, before Ben Stokes and Adil Rashid picked up three wickets apiece to stop West Indies reaching 400.
Stokes will have enjoyed snaring Carlos Brathwaite — the man who hit him for four successive sixes to snatch the 2016 World twenty20 title out of England’s hands — for just three.
But how costly those dot balls, 64 of them in all in Gayle’s innings, were to prove. Roy had to ride his luck, dropped four times, but here was another display of the power than could catapult him into the Ashes this summer as well as launch England’s World Cup challenge. And when he was finally caught at short third man for 123, West Indies’ attack was rendered just as ineffectual as England’s, with Root also taking advantage of careless fielding to guide England home.
Root, who was dismissed for 102 with just one run needed, added 116 with captain Morgan as England completed the fourth highest successful run chase in one- day international history with eight balls to spare. If they can only sort out the bowling, they will be really dangerous.