West Indies will play Zimbabwe in the second game of the five match series at Providence in Guyana. The Zimbabweans continued with their winning streak on tour as they edged out the West Indian side in a thrilling two-run victory in the first game, and will look to make it happen again.

There was no doubt that the West Indian skipper Chris Gayle would have had a lot to say to his team after the first match of the series. That, he went on to say that if the Zimbabweans continued playing this, the hosts could even lose the series 0-5 says a lot about what he seems to feel about his own team's effort as well.

The fielding was abysmal and the batting could have been much better for the West Indian team. In fact, at every stage of their batting, they needed that something little extra and they would have won the game, including the last over when only five runs were needed to win off four balls and they had three wickets standing including that of Dwayne Smith. An unnecessary hoick, another across-the-line shot that followed the batsmen not crossing over and the match was lost.

Zimbabwe, on the other hand, will be mighty thrilled by the manner in which they posted their win. It was a well-compiled win, where the batsmen, bowlers and fielders all played their part. But the biggest part played during the first innings was by Vusi Sibanda, who played a grindingly slow knock of 95 which took 140 odd balls coming.

The West Indian side will need to do something to overcome not only Sibanda, but one gets the feeling, that any one of the top-order, who could play such an innings. Kemar Roach and Sulieman Benn were the two stand-out bowlers, but they needed something more drastic than the pair to get the get the better of the Zimbabwean side.

For the Zimbabwean team, their strategy continued to revolve around spinners. They opened with their two best spin bowlers in Prosper Utseya and Raymond Price, and continued with the same strategy throughout - not allowing any batsman to really settle. Even Gayle, one of the fastest scorers in the history of ODIs, took 66 balls for his 57, while Barath's 50 came off 96. The West Indies will need to come up with a strategy to counter the slow bowlers in the remaining games, or run the risk of losing the series.

The second game will be played at the same, Providence ground in Guyana.

Tag :- Chris Gayle   Dwayne Smith   Kemar Roach   Raymond Price   Vusi Sibanda   West Indies   Zimbabwe