St Lucia: Oshane Thomas and Chris Gayle starred as the West Indies thrashed England by seven wickets in the fifth and final one-day international in St Lucia on Saturday to square the series 2-2.
Thomas claimed five for 21 with the top-ranked tourists being demolished for 113 off 28.1 overs — their lowest-ever total in an ODI against the Caribbean side — just three days after scoring 418 in the fourth match in Grenada.
Gayle signed off on his ODI career in the region with a blistering 77 off just 27 balls to catapult his side to victory with almost 38 overs to spare in reaching 115 for three off 12.1 overs.
The 39-year-old was the obvious choice for the man-of-the-series award given his utter dominance with the bat in every innings of the four matches, scoring 424 runs at an average of 106, with 39 sixes. “At one stage, I thought this is going to be my last (ODI) innings in the Caribbean for the West Indies, so I thought I’d go out on a high,” said Gayle. “We’ll get a bit of respect going into the World Cup.”
When Shimron Hetmyer struck the winning boundary at the start of the 13th over, it meant the West Indies had shared a series with the side considered favourites to lift the World Cup in England and Wales in three months’ time, belying their lowly ranking of ninth and the fact they had scraped through World Cup qualifying a year earlier in Zimbabwe. Playing just his ninth ODI, Thomas destroyed the visitors’ vaunted batting line-up with career-best figures. (AFP)
