Thursday, April 2, 2009

One-day decider set to go ahead

Fifth one-day international, St Lucia:
West Indies v England
Date: Friday, 3 April Play starts: 1430 BST
Coverage: Full commentary on Test Match Special on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, BBC Radio 4 Long Wave and BBC Sport website (UK only). Live text commentary on BBC Sport website & mobiles. Also live on Sky Sports


Chris Gayle
Windies skipper Gayle is in blistering form

West Indies captain Chris Gayle says the fifth and final one-day international against England in St Lucia on Friday will go ahead.

Players threatened a boycott last week because of a row with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) over salaries.

Gayle confirmed talks began on Thursday between the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) and the WICB.

England levelled the one-day series at 2-2 on Sunday thanks to Andrew Strauss' unbeaten 79.

"Yes, we have a match," said Gayle. "Based on the response I'm getting, things seem to be breaking down properly.

"Hopefully it will all finish off well, but the game will go on [regardless]. Basically we're looking forward to actually playing."

We'll be judged not on how well we've done in our training sessions but how well we've done on the pitch

England captain Andrew Strauss

The 29-year-old Jamaican said off-field issues would not deflect from his team's motivation going into the rubber at the Beausejour Stadium.

"We're totally focused to be honest with you, even though a lot of things have been happening off the field. We're here to play cricket," Gayle added.

"Hopefully we can finish off on a high. Friday is a very important game for us and we believe we can get the job done."

England's quest for a first-ever one-day series win in the Caribbean has been boosted by the availability of key players Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff.

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Pietersen has shaken off a back problem while Flintoff has a sore left thumb, but it will not affect his participation.

"It's fantastic to have those two in the side and I'm fully expecting one of the two of them or both of them to combine and help us win on Friday," said captain Andrew Strauss.

Strauss, on his first tour as full-time England captain, said his team was keen to finish off a difficult tour on a high.

He said: "I suppose there was potential for us to go off the rails and we haven't done that. To lose the Test series was bitterly disappointing but the guys have stuck together very well.

"We've put in a huge amount of work over the last 10 weeks off the field and the guys have responded excellently.

"The amount of fitness work we've done, the amount of training work we've done has been very impressive but you want to see the rewards for that hard work we've put in.

"We will be judged not on how well we've done in our training sessions but how well we've done on the pitch which is why this game is a very important one."

West Indies have made one change to their squad, drafting in left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn for the injured Nikita Miller.


West Indies: Chris Gayle (capt), Lendl Simmons, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Denesh Ramdin, Darren Sammy, Sulieman Benn, Fidel Edwards, Lionel Baker, Dale Richards, Ravi Rampaul.

England: Andrew Strauss (capt), Ravi Bopara, Kevin Pietersen, Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood, Matt Prior, Andrew Flintoff, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Stuart Broad, Steve Harmison, James Anderson, Ian Bell, Adil Rashid, Gareth Batty, Steve Davies.

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