West Indies v England One Day Series



Starts Friday 20th March, Providence, 13.30 GMT
Sky Sports 1

After the debacle of the Twenty20 International, England will be seeking a much improved performance in the fifty over format (a format which suits the present playing squad more so in my opinion) and they will face a Windies side buoyed by a comprehensive win in the T20 after scraping a Test Series victory by the finest of margins (It finished 1-0 to the Windies but frankly two conservative declarations helped cost England what could have been a 2-1 Victory).

The form of England's batsmen on the whole is pretty good - almost all and sundry filled their boots on the flat Test wickets but the form of the bowlers is certainly a concern. Let's be harsh here, Amjad Khan for example looked well below the required standard of pace bowler and fielder in International Cricket in both the Tests and T20. To be fair to him we did not get a chance to see him showcase his batting abilities but I wouldn't expect him to have put on a Bradman-esque show, more lower order county pro.

One-Day Internationals Series results: West Indies v England

England in West Indies ODI Series	1980/81		West Indies	2-0 )
England in West Indies ODI Series	1985/86		West Indies	3-1
England in West Indies	1989/90		abandoned	0-0
England in West Indies	1989/90		West Indies	1-0
England in West Indies ODI Series	1989/90		West Indies	3-0
England in West Indies ODI Series	1993/94		West Indies	3-2
England in West Indies ODI Series	1997/98		West Indies	4-1
England in West Indies ODI Series	2003/04		Drawn	2-2

England really should have won the T20. A solid base was laid by Steven Davies and Ravi Bopara but the innings seemed to unravel once the disgraceful decision to give Kevin Pieterson out leg before occurred and 122 runs to chase was always going to look like an easy task on paper. The truth is that 150 would probably have been enough and had umpiring decisions gone the way of England, coupled with a more disciplined approach to the innings we could easily have seen such a scenario.

With doubts over the fitness of Chris Gayle (a man of huge importance to the Windies both as calm leader and explosive opener), a bowling attack that looks wafer thin in quality much like that of England's and my own opinion that this team has reached its likely roof level of performance, I can see England righting the wrongs and putting this side to the sword.

If Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad can bowl themselves into form, they can provide the difference between the two teams in this series. When I look at both sides I see plenty of batting talent, with a few stars on each side and pretty slim pickings in terms of world class bowling. Dwayne Bravo is a talented all rounder but his quirky medium pace offerings are certainly not enough to scare the likes of Pieterson and Collingwood.

Side with the England boys to help beat the recession. With the talent available to them, they should not really be outsiders against the present West Indies team.
 
Recommendations - England to win the series 3 Points @ 2.05 (Boylesports )

England to win series 5-0 0.5 Points @ 21 (Coral, Bet Internet) VOID IF ANY ABANDONMENT'S

S.Broad top England series bowler 2 Points @ 4.5 (Bluesq , PaddyPower,StanJames,888sport)

Crafty Stan