LONDON, England, CMC – West Indies captain Chris Gayle, mindful of his team’s woeful form against England on their current trip, is anxious to lift his side to a crucial win against the home team in their ICC Twenty20 match today.
The two sides clash at The Oval with a spot in the semi-finals awaiting the winner and the English enter the fixture with the psychological edge after dominating the Caribbean side in Test and limited overs cricket in their series that preceded the ICC World T20.
“It would be nice to get the last say for the summer against England by beating them,” Gayle said.
“This is the important one, they have been getting the better of us and it’s a must-win. We have everything to play for and will give it our best,” Gayle added.
England looked efficient in ousting defending champions India yesterday and captain Paul Collingwood is keen to keep the winning momentum.
“It was a major effort all-round (to beat India) and now we have to replicate this against the West Indies. We have to be brave though, and try to keep the same energy and drive,” Collingwood said.
West Indies had beaten India Friday but slipped to defeat against South Africa on Saturday.
The inconsistent Windies are widely considered to be more potent in this form of the game than the other versions and Gayle has promised to bring ‘guns blazing’ today.
“We are confident we can beat them and we have done it before. There’s no two ways about it, we will have to step up, it’s a crucial game,” he said.
West Indies have not beaten England in any match for the two months they have spent here this summer.
As familiar foes, England will embrace their home advantage which appears to have worked for them against the Caribbean side this year after West Indies took the prized Wisden Trophy from them in the Caribbean earlier this year before surrendering it in the return trip to England this summer.
“Monday is a huge game – we’ve been playing the West Indies for what seems like the last half a year,” said Collingwood.
“Both sides know each other very well, they have some danger men in that side … and know we have a massive job ahead of us,” Collingwood said after his side’s win over India.
Match time is 5:30 (12:30 pm Eastern Caribbean Time/11:30 am Jamaica)
TEAMS:
WEST INDIES (from) Chris Gayle (captain), Denesh Ramdin (vice captain), Lionel Baker, Sulieman Benn, Dave Bernard, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Fidel Edwards, Andre Fletcher, Xavier Marshall, Kieron Pollard, Darren Sammy, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Lendl Simmons, Jerome Taylor.
ENGLAND – Paul Collingwood (captain), James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Stuart Broad, James Foster†, Robert Key, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Eoin Morgan, Graham Napier, Kevin Pietersen, Adil Rashid, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, Luke Wright.
