CricInfo Home
News Home

NEWS FOCUS
Rsa in Pak
NZ in India
Zim in Aus

Domestic
Other Series

An unforgettable in-nings by Ricardo Powell, the youngest member of the team, took a match that had almost slipped away from the West Indies and turned the final of the Coca- Cola Singapore Challenge against India here yesterday into a rare and notable triumph.

The 20-year-old Jamaican, a first-class cricketer only since last February and in his fifth One-Day international, blazed eight sixes and nine fours in 124 off 93 balls to carry the West Indies to within nine runs of victory.

It gave Powell the Man-Of-The-Match award of US$500, the Player-Of-The-Series prize of US$2 000, and the West Indies snatched the bounty of US$30 000.

The two batsmen widely and justifiably regarded as the best of the modern generation, Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, were opposing captains in the match but, even at their best, neither could have bettered such a performance. As it was, Tendulkar fell without scoring, Lara for 18.

It left centre stage to Powell before, visibly wearied by his effort in the blazing sunshine, he top-edged a skier to the keeper off the fast bowler Debasish Mohanty.

By then, the result was not in serious doubt and the West Indies duly completed their first overseas tournament success since 1995 by four wickets with 2.2 overs in hand 15 balls later.

Powell arrived in the middle of a hot, steamy afternoon with his team in crisis. They were 67 for four in the 16th over in pursuit of a distant 255.

Opener Sherwin Campbell was out lbw, shuffling too far across his stumps in the second over; Ridley Jacobs had his off-stump uprooted in the 11th and captain Brian Lara and the resolute Jimmy Adams had just been out within seven runs of each other. Only five bowlers remained.

Powell had already shown in his few appearances, especially in the earlier matches in this tournament, a rare gift for clean, powerful hitting and an imperturbable temperament. They were in even more pronounced evidence as he swiftly seized the initiative from the astounded Indians.

He announced himself with a sizzling cover-driven four from off-spinner Nikhail Chopra, who had just uprooted Lara’s middle stump with a faster ball, delivered with an action that will draw the attention of the International Cricket Council sooner rather than later, and Adams to a slip catch.

After that he was unstoppable. He despatched Chopra for his first six over long-off, took three off the left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi in the same general direction and another over long-on off the the third spinner, the wily Anil Kumble.

When the faster bowlers, Venkatesh Prasad and medium-pacer Saurav Ganguly, dropped short he pulled them onto the tented roofs of the covering the temporary seating.

He could not, and did not, do it on his own.

For 9.4 overs, Shivnarine Chanderpaul stayed to steady things in a stand of 61. When Chanderpaul miscued Kumble’s full toss to long-on at 128 in the 27th over, Nehemiah Perry, Powell’s fellow Jamaican and 10 years his senior, used the experience of 13 years in the first-class game and his innate cricketing sense to accompany him in a partnership of 118 from 19 overs.

Before Powell and Perry came together, it had seemed for all the world as if this was another championship the West Indies would let slip away. They had been to multi-team finals in Bangladesh last year and Sharjah in 1997 only to lose.

A reversal of such disappointments was long overdue but poor bowling by Courtney Walsh’s support staff allowed India to recover from the sixth-ball loss of captain Sachin Tendulkar and the insecurity of 108 for four in the 29th over to compile 254 for six from their 50 overs.

Once Walsh was out of the attack, West Indies could not maintain their lead.

Walsh finished with a debit of eight runs and a no-ball off his nine overs but no one could follow his disciplined example. Rahul Dravid and Chopra took advantage of the inconsistency in a stand of 102 in 16 overs.

The total seemed enough when Lara fell. But along came Powell.