England looking to keep the heat on West Indies by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Player:	CH Gayle, AJ Strauss
Event:	West Indies in England 2009

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DateLine: 20th May 2009

 

The short Test series has been done and dusted with the ODI leg of the series beginning tomorrow. England has reclaimed the Wisden Trophy that they had lost to a determined Windies team in the Caribbean two months back and will be looking to carry the form into the one day series starting tomorrow.

 

The last time these two sides had encountered England was able to win the 3-2 in a rain affected series in West Indies. They were trailing 2-1 but then in the fourth match Strauss played one of his best ODI knock in his career to chase down a challenging total and then in the final ODI a Flintoff hattrick sealed the match and the series in England’s favour. If the English bowlers were frustrated with the benign nature of the tracks offered to them in the Caribbean they were not complaining about the nature of the wickets in England as it provided an extra teeth to their attack. Now with the ODI series they will surely be looking to blank out a disoriented West Indian team.

 

Chris Gayle will be happy to return back to the format that he is more comfortable with -- the limited overs version of cricket. With the resources available to him for the series it is certain that he can spring a surprise or two on the unsuspecting English team. The last time he had captained West Indies in England for a ODI series he was able to return back with the trophy. He will be looking to repeat the same performance this time around.

 

Squads :

 

England : Andrew Strauss (captain), Ian Bell, Tim Bresnan, Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan, Matt Prior, Ryan Sidebottom, James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Kevin Pietersen, Owais Shah and Graeme Swann

 

West Indies : Chris Gayle (captain), Lionel Baker, Dwayne Bravo, Fidel Edwards, Kieron Pollard, Darren Sammy, Lendl Simmons, Dale Richards, Jerome Taylor, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Ravi Rampaul, Runako Morton, Shivnaraine Chanderpaul, Sulieman Benn and Denesh Ramdin