Shiv tops averages in big way

CHESTER-LE-STREET, England (CMC):

Veteran left-hander Shivnarine Chanderpaul finished with a stunning average of 148 after another prolific display in the fourth Test between England and the West Indies which ended Tuesday.

The 33-year-old Chanderpaul was the only real bright spark in the West Indies batting as he finished with 446 runs, including two unbeaten centuries and three half-centuries.

It earned him the West Indies Man-of-the-Series award as well as the Man-of-the-Match accolade, though England pulled off a comfortable seven-wicket triumph at the Riverside Ground to record a 3-0 series victory.

Team player

"It's always difficult as a player when you put in a big effort but at the end of it there is nothing to show from a team's perspective and I know Shiv is a team player," Windies captain Daren Ganga said.

"Someone who goes there and fights for the sake of the team, and his batting in this series has been tremendous. I don't think I've seen him bat like this before in my career playing with him.

"He is definitely somebody who can carry our batting and he will continue to do that and we all need to take a page out of his book in the manner in which he commits himself to cricket and commits himself to his game."

Ganga, in contrast, had a wretched series, scoring 105 runs in eight innings at a forlorn average of 15.

Seasoned opener Chris Gayle struggled with 220 runs at an average of 31 while left-hander Devon Smith also failed to impress with 149 runs from his seven innings at 21.

The only other batsman to show enterprise was all-rounder Dwayne Bravo who scored 291 runs to average 41.57.

Seamer Corey Collymore finished as the highest wicket-taker with 11 scalps at an average of 43.45.

Batting Averages M I Runs HS Ave 100 50
S Chanderpaul 3 5 446 136 148.66 2 3
D Bravo 4 7 291 56 41.57 - 2
R Sarwan 2 1 35 35 35.00 - -
C Gayle 4 8 220 52 31.42 - 1
DS Smith 4 7 149 42 21.28 - -
R Morton 4 7 146 54 20.85 - 1
D Ramdin 4 7 127 60 18.14 - 1
D Ganga 4 8 105 49 15.00 - -
J Taylor 3 5 55 23 13.75 - -
D Sammy 1 2 26 25 13.00 - -
D Powell 3 5 49 36 12.25 - -
M Samuels 1 2 21 19 10.50 - -
C Collymore 4 7 37 16 7.40 - -
S Joseph 1 2 14 13 7.00 - -
F Edwards 2 4 5 5 1.66 - -

BOWLING

M O W BB Ave
D Sammy 1 38.3 8 7-66 12.25
F Edwards 2 62.1 9 5-112 34.00
C Collymore 4 137 11 3-58 43.45
C Gayle 4 73.3 6 3-66 47.50
D Powell 3 118 9 3-89 48.55
D Bravo 4 107.3 6 2-91 68.66
JTaylor 3 80 4 2-67 90.00
R Morton 4 1 0 - - - 4.00
R Sarwan 2 6 0 - - - 5.50
S Chanderpaul 3 11 0 - - - 3.90
M Samuels 1 9 0 - - - 5.22