Image courtesy of: Zimbio

West Indies opener Chris Gayle and all-rounder Marlon Samuels shattered numerous records during their side’s 73-run win over Zimbabwe in Canberra via the Duckworth-Lewis method.

However, Zimbabwe’s batting duo of Sean Williams and Craig Ervine both deserve a lot of credit as well as they scored 76 and 52 respectively.

West Indies captain Jason Holder would have been brooding over his decision to bat first early on after it took Tinashe Panyangara just two balls to clean bowl Dwayne Smith for a duck.

Panyangara came so close to dismissing Gayle just two balls later when the ball thundered into his pads, but the decision stayed not out since the ball was clipping the top of middle stump.

Gayle and Samuels absolutely dominated Zimbabwe from that point on as they amassed a 372-run partnership, which is the largest stand in ODI and World Cup history.

During their record-breaking partnership, Gayle scored the fastest ODI double century in history and also became the first non-Indian player to make 200 runs in an ODI. Samuels meanwhile brought up his eighth ODI century.

The partnership was finally broken on the last ball of the innings when Gayle was caught by Zimbabwe skipper Elton Chigumbura at point off the bowling of Hamilton Masakadza.

Gayle scored a career-best 215, which came off 147 balls and included 10 boundaries and 16 sixes, which equals the record for the most sixes hit in an ODI innings. During his knock, Gayle became only the second West Indian batsman after Brian Lara to score 9,000 ODI runs.

Samuels on the other hand finished unbeaten on a career-best 133, which came off 156 deliveries and included 11 boundaries and three sixes.

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

Thanks to Gayle and Samuels’ career-best knocks, the West Indies ended up making 372/2 off their 50 overs, which is now their highest score in ODI history.

Panyangara and Masakadza picked up one wicket each.

Chasing 373 to win, Zimbabwe got off to a poor start as they lost Regis Chakabva, Masakadza and Sikandar Raza for 46 runs.

Williams and Brendan Taylor stabilised the innings with an 80-run partnership before Taylor was caught behind off the bowling of Samuels. However, when Taylor asked for the review, there was quite a lot of controversy since the third umpire upheld the original decision even though there was not enough evidence to suggest that the ball had hit Taylor’s glove.

Williams and Ervine kept the runs flowing with a 51-run partnership, during which Williams registered his half-century, before he was caught by Smith at midwicket off the bowling of Holder.

Williams’ brilliant knock of 76 came off 61 balls and included nine boundaries.

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

Ervine went on to score 52 off 41 deliveries, which included seven boundaries and a six, before he was clean bowled by Gayle.

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

Following Ervine’s dismissal, Zimbabwe’s lower order completely collapsed as they went from 226/6 to being bowled out for 289.

Holder and Jerome Taylor snapped up three wicket apiece, while Gayle took two and Samuels and Nikita Miller claimed one wicket each.

Chigumbura was disappointed with his side’s performance, and said: “There is a lot of work to be done. Gayle’s lbw was just unlucky, but he played a massive innings today. I think we will be fine (morale wise), we have to just forget about what happened today. Obviously it was a hard score to chase down, it is a matter of just working hard. Hopefully our bowling comes into play in the next game, and if we are chasing, hopefully we are chasing a lower score.”

Holder was delighted to have won, and said: “It was a very good pitch, we needed some leeway for our bowling. We are gaining some momentum as we go [on]. Having four fielders outside is pretty difficult. Chris is a very entertaining player, he’s leading the century list for West Indian players.”

Gayle was named Man of the Match, and said: “It was a fantastic day for me. From a team point of view it was a great all-round performance. We are looking forward to the next match against SA. When you work hard, then you start to see the results. Glad I was able to produce the goods today and score my first ODI double century. Losing Smith early was a blow, so when Marlon came we just tried to consolidate. It was a bit slow early on so we tried to make the necessary adjustments early on. Eventually things became easier for us, and then eventually we were able to get this big total. Marlon also accelerated at the end too. Not worried about my bowling at all, I am too good. Coming from the loss in the first game, then beating Pakistan, and coming out on top again today, now we have to face South Africa. We have to settle scores against them after they beat us 4-1 recently.”