Saturday, July 5, 2008

Australia seek whitewash

Michael Hussey and Michael Clarke will lead between them once more.

Match facts

Sunday, July 6
Start time 09:30 (local), 13:30 (GMT)

The Big Picture

West Indies will still be kicking themselves for giving up the fourth ODI having been in full control of the run chase and will be fully pumped ready to prove a point to their critics. Australia have been left with a very good chance of a rare ODI series sweep and Michael Clarke will be hoping for a more convincing showing in his second one-dayer as captain in the injured Ricky Ponting's absence. The match is both teams' last chance for some international cricket for nearly two months before they play some warm-up ODIs at the end of August ready for the Champions Trophy in Pakistan in September.

ODI form guide

West Indies - LLLLN (most recent first)
Australia - WWWWL

Team news

West Indies made some quick adjustments after their third straight loss, bringing in an untested trio for the fourth ODI and dropping Patrick Browne, Sulieman Benn and Kieron Pollard. Of the new three, Nikita Miller took a wicket on debut and Shawn Findlay made 9, while Kemar Roach is yet to feature. West Indies captain Chris Gayle has spoken about his displeasure that he's not always sure what's going on selection-wise. "The majority of the time we discuss about selection and sometimes I get something totally different," he told the Trinidad Express. "It's difficult on my side." He and Ramnaresh Sarwan have been struggling with groin complaints, while Shivnarine Chanderpaul has had a calf complaint, so whether they will be risked once more still remains to be seen.

West Indies (possible) 1 Chris Gayle (capt), 2 Xavier Marshall, 3 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 4 Shivnarine Chanderpaul, 5 Dwayne Bravo, 6 Shawn Findlay, 7 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 8 Darren Sammy, 9 Daren Powell, 10 Fidel Edwards, 11 Kemar Roach.

Michael Clarke will captain again after Ponting flew home because of the tendon problem in his right wrist. Clarke avoided defeat in his first ODI as captain but while his team pulled off a last-ball win, he couldn't escape a fine for a slow over-rate, losing 10 per cent of his match fee. His team-mates also lost five per cent each. Stuart Clark is the only remaining member of the squad not to have played in the series and he could be used, giving Brett Lee a rest. David Hussey played his first ODI of the tour in the last match and made 50 so he has a strong chance of being retained.

Australia (possible) 1 Shane Watson, 2 Shaun Marsh, 3 David Hussey, 4 Michael Clarke (capt), 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Andrew Symonds, 7 Luke Ronchi (wk), 8 James Hopes, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Nathan Bracken, 11 Stuart Clark.

Watch out for ...

Kemar Roach The 20-year-old Roach, a right-arm fast bowler, could be in line for his ODI debut. Though he has barely played any first-class cricket, he was called up to West Indies' third Test squad against Australia and has earned a place in the ODI squad, not that his captain Gayle particularly approves of new faces at a time when they are facing the World Champions, Australia. He has played for Barbados and West Indies' Under-19s and last month made his Twenty20 debut for West Indies.

Luke Ronchi Brad Haddin's injury picked up in the first ODI has given Ronchi four bites at the ODI cherry and so far his glovework has drawn much praise. But he will want to show off his explosive batting if he gets the chance. So far he has only been required to bat once, when he got 12 in the last match.

Umpires Asad Rauf, Steve Bucknor.

Weather

It's forecast to be windy with scattered showers in the afternoon in Basseterre on Sunday.

Stats and trivia

Friday's match was the first time in four matches that Australia have failed to surpass 300 runs on the smallish ground of Warner Park. It was also West Indies' first defeat in two ODIs there, having beaten India there in 2006. If Australia win the final game on Sunday it would be a rare whitewash of West Indies in ODI series in the Caribbean: this has happened only twice before when South Africa won 5-0 and Pakistan 3-0, both in 2005.

Quotes

"Do you really want to experiment with a team like Australia? If that is the case, it is going to be more difficult to beat them. I thought it was the wrong time to try these things, to experiment a lot. We should be looking to win the series, but it's already gone."
Chris Gayle has been unhappy with some of the selection decisions

"A victory on Sunday and a 5-0 series sweep will mean a lot to us, since it has been our goal when we arrived in the Caribbean to win every match we play on this tour. It would be important to us because the new guys coming into the side would get to be a part of a winning side, and we would get to show them the level of performance we expect from them. This series is not over for us just yet. We want to win every match."
Michael Clarke goes for the big 5-0