West Indies fall meekly

BRISTOL, England (CMC):

Dwayne Bravo stroked a polished 50 but West Indies offered very tame resistance and England marched to an emphatic victory in the second one-day international (ODI) at Bristol's County Ground yesterday.

After Stuart Broad and Paul Collingwood combined for seven wickets and restricted West Indies to 160 all out in 38.3 overs, England cruised to victory at 161 for four off 36 overs to maintain their recent dominance over the Caribbean side while claiming an unbeatable 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

After rain washed out the first match last Thursday, the series ends with the third and final game tomorrow at Edgbaston and leaves the struggling West Indies in a must-win situation to prevent a series defeat.

"It was a bad day at the office but we have a final to play on Tuesday," West Indies captain Chris Gayle said after the game.

"We have to try and put this behind us. I don't know how to describe it but it's really, really bad from our part," said Gayle, whose side suffered a 2-0 loss in the Test series earlier this month.

Seven for two

England made a rousing start when Broad sent back Lendl Simmons and Ramnaresh Sarwan - both without scoring - inside his first two overs and left West Indies in strife at seven for two in the fourth over after they were sent in to bat by the home side.

Bowling with lively pace from the start, Broad trapped Simmons leg before wicket as the Trinidadian right-hander tried to work the ball to the on side and was beaten for pace.

Sarwan fell in Broad's next over, caught behind driving at a delivery outside his off-stump.

Gayle hit back by smashing a pair of boundaries off Broad's third over and the tall pacer suffered again in next over when Gayle smashed him over long-on for six and then to the backward point boundary off successive balls.

Introducing spin as early as the 10th over, England seemed set to pay the price when Gayle lofted off-spinner Graeme Swann's first ball into the stands beyond long-on. But Swann bowled the big left-hander off his pads with his next delivery.

Mild recovery

Gayle hit 31 off 28 balls with three fours and two sixes.

Bravo joined Shivnarine Chan-derpaul at 44 for three and staged a mild recovery for the touring Windies.

They added 63 for the fourth wicket before the partnership ended when Chanderpaul (27) was caught at short third man off the top edge as he tried to pull a Tim Bresnan delivery at 107 for four.

It became 128 for five in the 28th over when Bravo was bowled by a slower delivery from Collingwood.

Bravo scored 50 off 58 balls with six fours and one six, a superb shot over the long-off boundary off Dimitri Mascarenhas.

Collingwood struck again in his next over, dislodging Denesh Ramdin (8) lbw at 131 for six.

The West Indies continued on a sharp decline and they lost their last six wickets for just 32 runs in a woeful batting effort.

Jerome Taylor (1) was run out trying for a single that was not there, Collingwood bowled Keiron Pollard (8) at 150 for eight when the big Trinidadian went for a wild swing and Broad wrapped up the innings by cheaply removing Sulieman Benn (1) and Ravi Rampaul (7).