England captain Alastair Cook led his side to a series-clinching eight-wicket win over the West Indies in the second one-day international (ODI) with an impressive hundred at The Oval on Tuesday.
England, set 239, finished on 239 for two with five overs left after man-of-the-match Cook made 112 and shared stands of 122 and 81 with Ian Bell (53) and Jonathan Trott (43 not out) respectively.
Victory gave England an unassailable 2-0 lead in this three-match series and was their sixth successive victory at this level after a 4-0 clean sweep of Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates in February.
Significantly, it was also the sixth straight ODI match where an England opener had made a hundred, with three of those belonging to Cook.
Earlier, Dwayne Bravo’s 77 had been the cornerstone of West Indies’ 238 for nine, an innings where Chris Gayle marked his return to international cricket with a rapid 50.
However, Gayle’s exit sparked a match-turning collapse that saw four wickets lost for 16 runs.
“It was a really good win under some tricky circumstances,” Cook said. “The bowlers set it up well and we came through. As a bowler, you’ve got to keep plugging away against Chris Gayle and hope he makes a mistake.”
Left-handed opener Cook, reflecting on his innings, added: “It’s nice to score some runs. I haven’t hit the ball as well as I’d like this summer, so to get a hundred in a match-winning performance is good.”
West Indies, beaten 2-0 in the preceding three-Test series by England, came into this leg of the tour insisting one-day cricket was their stronger suit.
However, this crushing loss followed a 114-run thrashing, albeit under the Duckworth/Lewis method, in the first ODI in Southampton on Saturday.
“We didn’t score enough runs,” West Indies captain Darren Sammy said. “At the end of the day you need runs on the board to defend.”
“We wanted 280, we know the Oval wicket is a good one. We know cricket isn’t played on paper, it’s played out in the middle. You have to go out and perform and we haven’t done that,” Sammy added.
Cook and Bell were rarely troubled.
However, just when it looked the pair would not be parted, Bell chipped a slower ball from Sammy to Gayle in the covers.
Cook had just hit Sammy for the only six of his innings when next ball he too holed out off the medium-pacer to end a 120-ball stay featuring 13 fours.
It was the 27-year-old Cook’s fifth century in 47 matches at this level and fourth as captain.
Gayle’s 53 took just 51 balls, with five sixes and three fours, in what was the Jamaican left-hander’s first international match in 15 months after a dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board.
Having missed the series opener with a shin injury, it was not long before the 32-year-old Gayle — in for the injured Darren Bravo — resumed normal service after Cook won the toss and fielded.
First change Tim Bresnan was slammed for 18 in an over as Gayle hit three sixes, culminating with a huge blow onto the roof of the Bedser stand.
Although Bravo and Kieron Pollard (41) shared a fifth-wicket stand of exactly 100, West Indies’ total always looked inadequate on a good batting pitch.
Bravo’s 82-ball innings, featuring two sixes and eight fours, ended when he lofted James Anderson to Ravi Bopara at extra-cover.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set