Australia vs West Indies @ Newlands, Cape Town
Australia do as the captain ordered by anhilating the West Indies at Cape Town. Gayle sparked in a gloomy Windies display with Ponting leading the fight for anhilation, scoring an incredibly comfortable 67.
The West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan won the toss and elected to field first. A full capacity crowd watched on to see the might of Australia brush aside a weak bowling attack. The first wicket came at 22/0 and that of Matthew Hayden. He made 12 from just 5 balls before being trapped LBW by an inswinging Taylor delivery. Gilchrist was next to go with a slightly scratch 17 in 23 balls. Bravo bowled him to leave West Indies in the driving seat early on. Then a partnership of 96 between Ponting and Clarke provided the platform for some lower order hitting. Ponting was a class above the rest hitting 67 in just 38 deliveries. Clarke went first bowled by Bravo and Hussey also followed by hitting a six, then being trapped LBW by Bravo. Ponting finally went, caught Edwards bowled Powell, to an outstanding ovation from the Cape Town capacity crowd. Hogg made a 2 ball duck being cleaned up by Powell but Lee and Symonds provided the impitous to take Australia passed 200. Symonds cruched 38* from 17 balls and Lee 29* also from 17 balls. The biggest score of the tournament so far of 204-6 tallied by Australia. Gayle, Samuels, Bravo and Taylor were all very expensive, but Bravo claimed 3 wickets. Edwards was economical and Powell picked up 2 wickets.
The West Indies needed to get off to a flier to chase down this monster score, and did via some awesome hitting from Chris Gayle. He crunched most of the 50 runs before the first wicket went down, that of Devon Smith for 8 caught by Symonds from Clark's bowling. Gayle's magical hitting came to an end with a silly run out. No need to take the risky single with him hitting the ball how he was and a direct hit by Hogg saw the back of him. An amazing 61 from 19 balls broke the international twenty20 record for quickest 50. From then on the West Indies crumbled, not getting a partnership of 12 runs or more. Symonds rounded off a fantastic knock picking up the wickets of Samuels, Chanderpaul and Sarwan. Bracken and Johnson also took 2 and Hogg 1. An incredible collapse of 70/2 to 103 a/o in just 9.4 overs. Australia picked up an 101 run win to increase their chances of qualifiying for the semi-finals.
Gayle blew a gail as the Windies were blown over by Australia
