Fifth one-day international, Kingstown:
West Indies 165-6 (27.4 ovs) bt Zimbabwe 161 (50 ovs) by four wkts
Match scorecard
 Gayle hit eight fours and two sixes |
Chris Gayle scored 63 off 41 balls to steer the West Indies to a four-wicket victory over Zimbabwe in St Vincent, finishing the series 4-1 up. Charles Coventry's 56 revived the tourists' innings from 25-5 as they set a target of 162. A middle order collapse followed Gayle's stand before Kieron Pollard's 36 edged his side to the winning total with 22 overs to spare. It was Zimbabwe's fourth straight defeat after they won the first match. The West Indies had not won a series since August 2008 when they won a triangular tournament against Canada and Bermuda in Toronto. "It's been a long time since we last won a series, and it feels really, really good to have achieved this," said Windies captain Gayle, who slammed eight fours and two sixes. "It has been a total team effort because we started really badly, when we lost the first ODI. But for the guys to have bounced back, and won the series 4-1 was a tremendous effort, and I must commend them for the way they went about it."  | 606: DEBATE |
West Indies won the toss and, for the second match in succession, Gayle sent Zimbabwe into bat. Hamilton Masakadza top-edged Ravi Rampaul for a duck and it looked like being a struggle for Zimbabwe. Four more wickets followed before 27-year-old right-hander Coventry, playing for the first time in the series, struck five fours in his side's top score of 56 off 88 deliveries. | We have been letting ourselves down terribly with our batting, but our bowlers have been bowling their hearts out Zimbabwe captain Prosper Utseya |
However, he failed to save Zimbabwe from another collapse - no other Zimbabwe batsman even managed 20 as the visitors were dismissed for 161 from their full quota of 50 overs. Darren Sammy (3-33) was Zimbabwe's main tormentor, while Ravi Rampaul's 2-24 had flattened their top-order batting. "There were not enough runs on the board for us to be competitive," reflected Zimbabwe captain Prosper Utseya. "We have been letting ourselves down terribly with our batting, but our bowlers have been bowling their hearts out throughout the series," he added. Despite the early loss of Adrian Barath (14) to Elton Chigumbura's medium pace, Gayle's power hitting put the West Indies back on course. The 30-year-old left-hander brought up his third half century of the series off just 32 deliveries. But when he holed out to long-off from his opposite number Utseya, it sparked a slide in which four wickets tumbled for eight runs in 25 balls. The Bravo brothers, Darren and Dwayne, were both stumped by Tatenda Taibu, while Narsingh Deonarine lofted a catch to long-on. Darren fell to Lamb's off-spin, Deonarine to Graeme Cremer while Dwayne Bravo was stumped off the bowling of Utseya. Pollard's 36 eased West Indian nerves while Denesh Ramdin compiled an unbeaten 21. Pollard, fell with nine still required, slamming Ray Price to long-off before Ramdin sealed the win with a pulled boundary.
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