Posted on 07/11/2006 6:12:15 AM PDT by BaBaStooey
WINDIES XI MAKE CLEAN SWEEP OF US PROMOTIONAL SERIES by CMC 10 July 2006 20:38
BROOKLYN, New York - A star-studded West Indies XI made a clean sweep of their two-match series against the United States with contrasting wins over the weekend at the Floyd Bennett Cricket Field.
While they snatched a narrow five-run win in the first game on Saturday, they powered their way to an emphatic six-wicket victory on Sunday, with captain Brian Lara and Chris Gayle hammering half centuries.
Batting first in the opening 40-overs game, West Indies made 214 for six which was due largely to a polished 70 from Ramnaresh Sarwan, who hit five fours in his 83-ball knock.
Lara made 36, with two fours and a six, before former Windward Islands left-arm pacer Mike Alexis prised out the genius left-hander as he attempted to hoist him out of the ground
Chris Gayle hammered 23 including a six and a four in adding 43 for the first wicket with Darren Ganga who made 17.
Shrivnarine Chanderpaul and Dwayne Smith both chipped in with 21.
Imran Awan, the Pakistini-born opening bowler, snatched three Windies scalps - Sarwan, Chanderpaul and Smith -- for 39 runs while Alexis ended with two for 31.
In reply, Jamaican-born Rashard Marshall, relative of Jamaica and West Indies batsman, Xavier Marshall cracked a pugnacious, undefeated 90 to bring the United States close to reaching their target.
He added a valuable 115 for the sixth wicket with captain Steve Massiah whose 58 came from 104 balls.
They came together with the US in a spot of bother on 94 for five, but Marshall blasted seven fours and two sixes in just 56 balls, including 16 runs in a Wavell Hinds' over, to engineer the US recovery.
With the US requiring 17 runs for victory from the last over, Lara sent down his leg-spin conceding 11 runs while accounting Massiah's wicket.
In the second game on Sunday, Lara hammered 70 off just 43 balls, including nine fours and three mammoth sixes as the West Indies, chasing a target of 234 for eight, reached 237 for four off 30 overs.
Lara was joined by Gayle who blazed 62 off 33 balls, hoisting six massive sixes and four fours, including three successive sixes off former Trinidad and Tobago national player Glen Lorick's first over.
Lorick's first over, the last of the match, conceded 30 runs.
Americans don't have the patience to sit through a Test Match or even an ODI. Soccer will replace the NFL as America's #1 sport before cricket catches on in any meaningful sense.
We nearly won the first match by five wickets. Massiah, our captain, is a very talented batsman, and if he hadn't gotten out in that last over, we may have found those six runs for victory.
Its amazing our players are as good as they are, considering they don't have the opportunity to play as many quality international sides as often as they should.
That's no shock, since the precursor to baseball was invented in Britain, I believe. But you got to admit, it's not given the amount of press "football" is given.
"That was a wicked googly!"
The USA plays cricket!? Learn something new everyday esp on FR!
Whoopee-dang-a-ding-dong. Who cares about such obscure "sports"?
At least there is scoring in Cricket.
They have the patience to spend an entire day watching golf.
Sure, I know it will be a niche sport. But its not important that it be as popular as football or baseball. It doesn't need to be.
As long as the sport can get some media attention, and if we have a national team who can qualify for a World Cup and can at least compete with anyone, that is a pretty good goal in my opinion.
Soccer used to be where cricket is now, and now, and in 20 years, World Cups are in high definition and every match is shown, and our national team qualifies for every tournament. Would you believe that was possible 20 years ago?
the precursor of baseball was British, but it was not Cricket...it was Rounders.
I'm going to post the pictures of this event sometime later today, but I'm not expecting the pitch to look even remotely like Lord's, if that's what you're asking.
yeah and still must Americans don't give a rats @ss about Soccer either. As much as the MSM and the socialist world feels the need to try to change that.
Right, as I said, the precursor was British. I wasn't suggesting it was Cricket, sorry if I gave that impression.
I don't think 95 Americans out of 100 can even tell you what cricket is, other than having a vague idea of it as some sort of golf/baseball hybrid played with a flat bat.
LOL! The first laugh of the day!
That's like something out of a Roddy Doyle book.
"As much as the MSM and the socialist world feels the need to try to change that."
LOL!
Pipe down a bit.
Soccer is not socialist.
And it can be a lot of fun.
Baseball is sort of a combination of the two, with some American ideas thrown in there.
There are two main reasons why baseball overtook cricket in the USA.
(1) Americans want to be in charge, and they couldn't be in charge of cricket. So they poured their money into baseball (a game Americans invented and therefore could be in charge of) and developed the professional game, while cricket in America remained pretty much amateur.
(2) England shut us out of international play in the early 20th century, by forming the "world" governing body of cricket, the Imperial Cricket Council. Only England and its colonies could be members. This was mostly done because they've always had it in for us because we fought for our independence.
Prior to this, though, some English teams did tour the United States and some US teams did tour England. Australia did tour the US up through the 1930s. Don Bradman in fact visited the USA and met Babe Ruth at a match in New York City, a story which I am trying to do some more research on.
Now the Imperial Cricket Council has renamed itself the International Cricket Council and has opened itself up to all nations. The United States has also been flooded by immigrants from India, Pakistan, and the West Indies (and some from England and Australia), who play the sport. The ICC is now looking to try to tap the US market, meaning, non-immigrants like most of us.
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