Gayle, Sarwan, Bravo hit half-centuries, WI 255/6

Port of Spain, May 28 (UNI) Dwayne Bravo (62 n.o.) had a ball with the bat and riding on a treble of half-centuries, West Indies posed a challenging total of 255/6 in the fifth and final ODI against India here today.

Chris Gayle went on a rampage early in the innings to give the West Indies a solid start, Ramnaresh Sarwan consolidated the middle order while Bravo gave the final push scoring at a strike rate of 140 to take the West Indies score past 250.

Sreesanth opened the bowling for India and was unlucky not to get wicket in his very first over. Chris Gayle slashed hard at an away going delivery and managed a thick edge. But wicketkeeper M S Dhoni couldn't hold to the rising edge off Gayle's bat and the ball bounced off his gloves for the first boundary of the innings.

Gayle then hit a scorching cover drive for four to remind the Indians how costly this folly could be.

Ajit Agarkar has been the pick of Indian bowlers on this series and it was him who struck the first blow. Left-handed Sewnarine Chattergoon, playing his first one-day of the series completely misread a leg-cutter from Agarkar.

Chattergoon thought that the ball was going away and shouldered arms only to see the ball nip in sharply and dislodge his off stump.

Agarkar bowled five dot balls to complete his maiden over.

Chris Gayle had picked the line of Sreesanth and hit him over the in-field for two more fours in the third over of the innings. Gayle continued to be harsh on Sreesanth in his next over too. He lofted a fuller ball back over the bowler's head for a boundary and then had a hard swipe that went on to the third man boundary for yet another four.

West Indies had scored 27 from the first five overs with one loss.

Dravid replaced Sreesanth with Munaf Patel after he conceded 25 runs in his first spell of three overs. Patel kept a more wicket-to-wicket line but met with no success. He bowled first spell of three overs for 11 runs.

Seeing that the wicket was behaving uneven, with many balls lying low, Dravid introduced spinners from both the ends after 12 overs.

By this time Gayle had also slowed down as the West Indies looked to consolidate their good start. Onset of spinners further slowed down the run-rate.

West Indies added 40 runs in from 11 to 20 overs as compared to 52 from the first 10.

Sehwag with his fastish off-spinners was more difficult to score off than Harbhajan Singh.

Meanwhile, Gayle compelted his fifty (his 26th half-century, third against India) in his inimitable style reverse sweeping Sehwag for four. Sehwag however had the last laugh when he clean bowled Gayle the very next ball.

Gayle scored 51 runs of 61 balls with 10 hits to the fence. West Indies were 90 for two.

The loss of Chris Gayle still brought enough cheers in the stands as West Indies skipper Lara walked in to a standing ovation. Lara has publicly stated that this could be his last one day at his home ground and the star of the nation was heavily applauded.

Lara and Sarwan had little trouble negotiating Indian bowling attack as the two scored in singles and twos to take the West Indies score past hundred mark without any further loss.

Indian off spinners bowled a very tight line that made boundaries few and far between to come by for Lara and Sarwan. Sehwag in particular bowled very tight conceding only 29 runs in his 10-overs spell and picked the wicket of Gayle.

Sarwan continued to milk Indian bowling as he picked up fifty number three in this series. To a fuller ball from Munaf Patel, Sarwan got across and flicked down to long-leg for a couple to raise his fifty.

Sarwan couldn't continue long as he charged down the track but missed the one from in-form Sreesanth and was bowled. Sarwan made 52 of 97 balls with one four.

The usually fluent Sarwan was tied down by some tight bowling on a slow and low pitch. So was Lara, much to his dislike. He danced down the pitch to loft Harbhajan over his head for the maximum.

Lara, playing his last one-day here at Queen's Park Oval was tragically run-out as he slipped a bit while taking a quick couple and was found short of crease by the third umpire. He walked back after scoring 36.

Bravo and Wavell Hinds ran quick between the wickets to boost the run-rate. India's bad day in fielding continued as Utthappa dropped a catch of Bravo off Agarkar.

Bravo, like Gayle, also made India pay the price dearly by scoring his second fifty of the series. Bravo ran very hard and also picked boundaries to remain not out on 62 runs off 44 balls with 4 fours. Hinds chipped in 32 of 34 balls.

For India Ajit Agarkar once again had the best figures taking two wickets for 44 runs.

Earlier Indian skipper Rahul Dravid won the toss and decided to field first.

India decided to play six batsmen in the eleven and made two changes from the last ODI. Robin Utthappa and Munaf Patel came in for Romesh Powar and Irfan Pathan.

West Indies have made four changes bringing in Sewnarine Chattergoon, Jerome Taylor, Dave Mohammad and wicketkeeper Dinesh Ramdin. They left out Fidel Edwards, Marlon Samuels, Bradshaw and Carlton Baugh who played in the fourth ODI.

West Indies have already clinched the series 3-1.

UNI XC LR PM2352