St Lucia: Oshane Thomas (5.1-21-5) and Chris Gayle (77, 27b, 5×4, 9×6) starred as the West Indies thrashed England by seven wickets in the fifth and final one-day international in St Lucia to square the series 2-2 here, Saturday.
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.”
Playing just his ninth ODI, Thomas destroyed the visitors’ vaunted batting line-up with career-best figures, despite coming on as the fourth bowler in the line-up.
Carlos Brathwaite and captain Jason Holder took two wickets each in support of the burly fast bowler to fully justify Holder’s decision to bowl first on winning the toss.
In a must-win situation after losing a high-scoring fourth game, the West Indies pace attack exploited a bouncy pitch and exposed the England batsmen’s technical shortcomings in these conditions.
Alex Hales (23 off 35 balls) and Jos Buttler (23 off 36 balls) were the top-scorers for the visitors. Captain Eoin Morgan was next best with 18 (off 22 balls) as the batting folded swiftly in the face of Thomas’ assault.
AFP
