This was no Greenidge and Haynes.
Let it be. This was no Gayle and Lewis either.
Did you expect that the biggest hit-makers on a very Irish Sunday would be John Campbell and Shai Hope- 6, 46 ODI innings respectively?
But hey, here’s the real winner of the day. May 5, 2019.
Surely, not just Ian Bishop, a redoubtable West Indian but even their cricket’s staunchest critics will ‘remember the date.’
And perhaps, for times to come.
When was the last time that you saw the West Indies obliterate an ODI opponent at its own turf?
Dublin saw a run-fest. But it was a one-sided one. It also unfurled a clatter of tumbling wickets. This too, a one-sided affair. At both ends, stood the West Indians, their chests puffed, not with false ego but with pride. And at the losing end stood an Ireland, with Porterfield, Stirling, O’Brien, Wilson utterly defied.
The West Indies entered an ODI facing Ireland, in Ireland and exited the Clontarf Cricket Ground at Dublin earlier than expected.
Way earlier.
The first of the seven ODIs in the three-match series (also featuring Bangladesh) saw Jason Holder’s tourists making a light work of the hosts, who were dismissed inside 32 overs. If you were a West Indies fan, then with so much spare time at hand, an ideal way to end a jubilant evening would’ve been in watching a re-run of the big blows and the fluent boundaries, with Holder’s men for company.
This 196-run win was interesting.
It was unimaginable and must it be said, it was forged in uncertain conditions, in the sense that not many would’ve actually given the West Indians a chance.
After all, their key players were thousands of miles away, engulfed in IPL’s sub-continental turfs, wickets that are night and day different from what they shall be facing soon in England.
This was also majestic. Given the fact that there was, apart from no Gayle, Pollard, Lewis, Russell, no Marlon Samuels either; so the West Indies were expected to have struggled, right?
But then, how many times have we heard that when you take an opponent lightly, you often end up struggling? But let’s dispense with cliches. What’s the point of them anyway? Just like there’s no point of siding with a cliche that one thinks might be getting slightly overdone in news headlines and social media keywords: West Indies blast Ireland, West Indies trounce Ireland.
So much of all that Jazz.
Anyways, it’s pointless to suggest so early on- albeit West Indies having registered a cracking triumph- are here to topple everybody in the imminent World Cup, just as it would be mindless to reduce the glory of their big win.
Not only have the West Indies never beaten Ireland by such a huge margin, but they’ve never done so on an Irish pitch.
So when Shai Hope and John Campbell; precision and power, timing and fluence, strokeplay plus flamboyance; joined hands on an assuming opening one-dayer of the tri-series, it were the Irish who flew from Dublin.
Sixes were being hit as if an irate crowd was pelting stones. Boundaries were being found by the middle of the bat as if a hunting pack was keen to close down on some prey.
Never before has any ODI contest seen both openers cross 150 whilst batting together. Never ever had the West Indies reached an opening stand as the colossal 365-run mark peaked by Shai Hope and John Campbell.
In so doing, the record-shattering effort that included 37 boundaries and 8 sixes, Campbell accounting for 6 half-a-dozens alone saw the West Indies better Pakistan’s record stand.
The previous best was Fakhar Zaman and Iman-ul-Haq’s 304-run-stand vs Zimbabwe, in 2018.
And that’s not all.
The heartening win, already a darling of the media, as expected, saw the West Indies pace bowlers being in the thick of things. A two-for by Roach ably supported Ashlee Nurse’s four-for, with Holder and Gabriel doing their bit, the captain going under four and a half an over as the Trinidadian pacer claimed three wickets.
But caution must be thrown to the winds. The West Indies, talented and capricious in equal measure capitulate ever so suddenly. Wondering how?
It was against this very opposition that they simply collapsed in the bowling department in an important league game in 2015’s Cricket World Cup. They couldn’t defend 304.
Thankfully, they don’t have to face the Irish threat in the 2019 ICC World Cup. But quite, on the contrary, the rest of the world will have to face what Brian Lara calls a possible “West Indies” threat.
And what’s more?
The return of their big-three- Gayle, Lewis, Russell- will empower a side that’s already flexing some muscle.
But again, let’s not get mad here in the fun of the joyful moment. Jason Holder wouldn’t want his team to be complacent here- right?