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Match facts
Friday March 12, 2010
Start time 9.30am (13.30GMT)

Big Picture
The fourth game gives West Indies the chance to wrap up the series after their resounding 141-run win on Wednesday, which represented a palpable shift in momentum between the two sides. Importantly for the home side, the win was built upon a solid team effort, lead by Shivnarine Chanderpaul’s patient fifty and Darren Sammy’s superb use of the conditions, as Zimbabwe unravelled completely after a promising start to their chase.

Within 80 balls in to the chase, it was all but over. A penetrative spell from Darren Sammy, in which he took three wickets from his first three overs – later adding one more to his tally – left the Zimbabwean top order reeling in their chase of 246 at Arnos Vale. The visitors had thrown in the towel at 58 for 5 went on to concede the game by a massive 141 runs, which gave West Indies a 2-1 lead in the series.

Chris Gayle, hurting after the last-over defeat in the first ODI, delivered a gritty all-round performance with support from Narsingh Deonarine to help steer West Indies to a series-levelling win – their first victory in an international fixture since August last year. The pair got together when Zimbabwe’s spinners had, yet again, put in an inspired effort to cripple the hosts in their chase of 207. But Gayle restrained himself amid the quick wickets that followed a fiery start, and opened up in timely fashion with Deonarine once Zimbabwe appeared to step off the pedal, to set the stage for a hard-fought victory. The batting backed up a disciplined effort from West Indies’ bowlers, led by Nikita Miller’s career-best haul.

Virender Sehwag has won the Test batting prize for the second year running in the ESPNcricinfo Awards. Sehwag’s audacious 293 against Sri Lanka in Mumbai was chosen over Andrew Strauss’s 161 at Lord’s in the Ashes and Chris Gayle’s unbeaten 165 in Adelaide, by a jury of former cricketers, commentators and Cricinfo’s senior editors.

The six awards, for performances in the three international cricket formats in 2009, were shared between players from three countries: India, Pakistan and West Indies. Gayle won the Twenty20 batting award for his 50-ball 88 against Australia at The Oval in the World Twenty20. His West Indies team-mate Jerome Taylor’s rout of England in Jamaica was voted the Test bowling performance of the year.

Match Facts

Friday, February 19, MCG
Start time 1425 (0325 GMT)

The Big Picture

The series is decided so there is little but pride to play for in this match. Australia want to finish the summer undefeated across all three formats, so they won’t be easing up despite resting some players. West Indies would love to leave the country with some positives ahead of their home series against Zimbabwe, so they will be keen for a consolation victory after their best hope of the series, the Sydney match, was washed out.

The countdown to the ESPNCricinfo Awards begins, with Ashes hundreds from Andrew Strauss, Jonathan Trott, Virender Sehwag’s thrill-a-ball 293 against Sri Lanka, Chris Gayle’s mature and match-saving 165 against Australia and Umar Akmal’s hundred on debut making up the final contenders for the Best Test Batting performance of 2009.

The top five were drawn on basis of votes from a 14-member jury that includes some of the leading cricket experts in the world and Cricinfo’s senior editors.

Match Facts
Friday, February 12, SCG
Start time 1325 (0325 GMT)

The Big Picture
At the start of the series Chris Gayle tipped a 4-1 win for West Indies, but given their predicament he would probably settle for 1-4. Calling the tourists out-classed in the opening exchanges is being polite to guests and if they lose in Sydney on Friday the five-game contest will be decided with two matches spare.

Chris Gayle has been dismissed four times by Doug Bollinger this season and admits the left-arm fast man has his number. Gayle, the West Indies captain, didn’t know who Bollinger was before the second Test in December, but has learned quickly and is still trying to find a way to deal with him.

Gayle was lbw first ball in Adelaide on Tuesday as Australia raced to a 2-0 lead in the five-match series. “He has my measure, definitely,” Gayle said in the Advertiser. “There is no doubt about that.”

After the match was effectively sealed from the first ball when Chris Gayle fell, Australia ran over a disappointing West Indies for an eight-wicket victory to earn a 2-0 lead. The tourists were out-classed by Doug Bollinger in the early stages and slumped to 4 for 16 before scrambling to 170, a total which was never going to be large enough.

Australia were not intimidated and Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting skipped to half-centuries as the win came in the 27th over. West Indies actually did well to last as long as 39.4 overs in their innings in a poorly timed performance given the current debate over the relevance of the 50-over game.

Another series, another opponent, same result. Two days after completing a tri-format clean-sweep against Pakistan, Australia continued their unbeaten summer with a 113-run victory over West Indies, set up by Shane Watson’s half-century and Doug Bollinger’s new-ball efforts. Chris Gayle’s prediction of a 4-1 West Indies win can still come true but they have only one day to regroup before Tuesday’s second match in Adelaide.