Chris Gayle remains the prize wicket against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760, says Jacob Oram – Cricket News Update
Having dismantled West Indies in the third One Day International (ODI), http://www.senore.com/Cricket/CH-Gayle-c1221’s brilliance and the left-hander remains the key in the last two matches of the
series.
The former West Indies captain, who is considered to be one of the most intimidating batsmen of the modern era, scored a fifty and a hundred in the initial two encounters of the five-match series, guiding his team to victory on both occasions.
However, the magical left-hander failed to construct a big knock in the third ODI at St Kitts. Consequently, the islanders were bowled out for merely 161 runs, chasing 250 in the second innings.
The Kiwis maintain that Gayle is the biggest hurdle in their way to success and whenever they can dismiss him early, they will have a massive opportunity to outclass the home team.
Oram believes that the rest of the Caribbean batting do not have enough depth to post big scores on the board consistently.
"We always talked about just exposing the rest of their top order, let alone their middle order, to bring pressure, which they hadn't been under for four games on the tour," Oram said. "On top of that we fielded as well as I've ever seen.”
The all-rounder is still wary of Gayle’s threat in the last two matches of the series and urged his team to be on their toes, as a deficit of 1-2 means that the Black Caps do not have any room for error.
"He's still probably averaging 80 or something like that for the tour so far, so we know he's going to be a massive thorn in our sides, and we've got to work just as hard to dismiss him and then work on the others,” the hard-hitting lower-order batsman expressed.
The last two ODIs will be played on 14th and 16th July respectively at Basseterre, which will be followed by the two-match Test series. The Kiwis have been massively handicapped on the current tour because of so many injuries.
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