Bridgetown (Barbados), Mar 15: Shane Shillingford destroyed an inept Zimbabwe batting line-up to set the West Indies on the way to a comprehensive nine-wicket win inside three days in the first Test here.
Picking up from where he left off the previous evening when he took two wickets in two overs, the tall off-spinner added four more victims to finish with innings figures of six for 49 — and a match analysis of nine for 107 — as the visitors were routed for 107 in their second innings just before lunch yesterday.
Left with the academic task of scoring 12 runs for victory, debutant seamer Tendai Chatara claimed the wicket of Kieran Powell to a catch at gully, delaying the formality of victory until after the interval when Chris Gayle hit the winning runs.
Following 2-0 series triumphs at home to New Zealand last July/August and in Bangladesh last November, this result gave the West Indies five consecutive Test wins for the first time since the all-powerful squad led by Viv Richards completed the feat in 1988.
They will now be heavily favoured to make it six in a row at the expense of a Zimbabwean side woefully short of international exposure at this level.
“We did exactly what we wanted to do, win our fifth Test in a row, everybody played their part really well,” said West Indies skipper Darren Sammy, who smashed his team’s top score of 73 in the first innings of 307.
“Now we have a chance to make it six in a row, something that hasn’t happened for over 20 years.” (AGENCIES).
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