Gayle and Thomas lead Windies to series-levelling thrashing of England

Oshane Thomas and Chris Gayle starred as the West Indies thrashed England by seven wickets in the fifth and final one-day international in St Lucia on Saturday to square the series 2-2

In the context of a series in which every encounter between Windies and England has been full of record-breaking moments and brilliant performances. Man of the Match Oshane Thomas claimed five for 21 and ‘Universe Boss’ Chris Gayle smashed 77 off just 27 deliveries, hitting nine sixes and five fours as the West Indies thrashed England by seven wickets in the fifth and final one-day international in St Lucia on Saturday to square the series 2-2.

Gayle reached his half-century off just 19 balls, breaking Darren Sammy’s record of the fastest ODI fifty by a West Indies batsman, beating the 20-ball mark attained twice by Sammy. The 39-year-old had recently announced that he would retire from one-day cricket after this year's World Cup in May.

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Gayle was the obvious choice for the man-of-the-series award given his utter dominance with the bat in every innings of the four matches, scoring 424 runs at an average of 106, with 39 sixes.

“At one stage I thought this is going to be my last (ODI) innings in the Caribbean for the West Indies, so I thought I’d go out on a high,” said Gayle.

“We’ll get a bit of respect going into the World Cup.”

When Shimron Hetmyer struck the winning boundary at the start of the 13th over it meant the West Indies had shared a series with the side considered favourites to lift the World Cup in England and Wales in three months’ time, belying their lowly ranking of ninth and the fact they had scraped through World Cup qualifying a year earlier in Zimbabwe..

#WIvENG What a day! The boys win by 7 wickets to level the ODI series 2 - 2! 🙌🏽 Well fought to the #MenInMaroon #ItsOurGame pic.twitter.com/4TX06xDoUx

— Windies Cricket (@windiescricket) March 2, 2019