0-3 Providence ‘Banglawash’ Embarrassment!

By Tony McWatt

Played three; Won none; Lost three!

That was the score line for West Indies at the conclusion of their hosted three-match ODI Series against Bangladesh, all matches of which were played at Guyana’s Providence National Stadium. The 0-3 result extended the West Indies run of successive ODI losses to Bangladesh to a whopping 11. This at the hands of a team which not too long ago was considered to be a minnow.

What was even more embarrassing for the West Indies than the actual 0-3 “Banglawash” Series result 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’ totals in each of the matches provided 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, they were 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 batsmen who for some reason may have mistakenly believed that they were participating in Bingo games on behalf of some unnamed Bangladesh Charity.

As one of the openers used by the West Indies during the series, 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 series 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 series tally of 27 runs scored at an average of 9.00. The second best, behind Mayers, among the three openers.

The repeated failures of the West Indies openers resulted in the numbers three and four having to be at the crease with very few runs on the board. In both the initial and final matches, the West Indies also lost their first wicket well within the 10 overs of Power Play 1. In the first ODI, Shai Hope was out off the very first ball bowled in the match. In the third, the West Indies had already lost three wickets even before the fifth over was completed.

Faced at most times with the responsibility of having to restore order to the innings, the West Indies middle order batsmen failed miserably at their assigned tasks. 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. 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 only 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 Keacy Carty who scored 33 in the one innings he batted and Keemo 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 result, a paltry 40 and his average of 13.33 even more so.

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 six 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 series’ 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.

About The Writer: Guyana-born, Toronto-based, Tony McWatt is the Publisher of both the WI Wickets and Wickets/monthly online cricket magazines that are respectively targeted toward Caribbean and Canadian readers. He is also the only son of the former Guyana and West Indies wicket-keeper batsman the late Clifford “Baby Boy” McWatt.