England snubbed West Indies as Alastair Cook sparkled – 2nd ODI

England 239-2 (Alastair Cook 112, Ian Bell 53, Darren Sammy 2-46) beat West Indies 238-9 (Dwayne Bravo 77, Chris Gayle 53, James Anderson 2-38) by 8 wickets.

Alastair Cook bounced back in the series by smashing a ton, led his team to an easy victory vs. West Indies in the 2^nd ODI and sealed the series for England.

West Indies scored 238 runs with one wicket left in their innings after tasting the allocated 50 overs. England crushed the Windies bowling and achieved the target by hammering 239 runs for the loss of two mere wickets.

Alastair Cook (England) was declared ‘Player of the match’ for his brilliant 112 runs which made the chase quite easy for the home side.

The second One Day International of the three match series was played at Kennington Oval, London, on Tuesday, June 19, 2012.

Earlier, the skipper of England, Cook won the toss and opted to bowl first while preferring to chase. The hard hitting opener, Chris Gayle, made a comeback in the ODI after a lapse of nearly15 months and initiated the innings with Lendl Simmons. The openers were very defensive in the beginnings overs and managed just eight runs in the first five that included three maidens as well.

Gayle opted to attack and sent the ball reeling out of the fence thrice in the sixth over and punished Tim Bresnan for three sixes in the 10^th over. They contributed 63 runs for the first wicket as Gayle was declared leg before wicket for 53 off 51 balls with 5 sixes and 3 fours. The incoming batsmen were unable to build a strong innings over a solid opening stand and the Windies lost their fourth wicket for 79 in 21 overs.

Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard stabilized the innings with sheer determination and crawled to 100 in 29 overs. The duo opened their shoulders in the powerplay overs and associated 100 runs partnership in 18.5 overs when Pollard was caught by James Anderson off Tim Bresnan for 41. The fifth wicket fell at 179 runs and Bravo attained his fifty in the 40^th over as the consolidation process was continued with the arrival of Darren Sammy.

They took the score to 220 when Sammy was gone for 21 and Dwayne Bravo became the eighth victim after scoring 77 off 82 deliveries with 2 sixes and 8 fours. The Caribbeans scored 238 runs after losing nine wickets at the end of the 50^th over.

James Anderson and Stuart Broad were the main wicket takers with two wickets each whereas Steven Finn, Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann claimed one wicket each.

England started off with their promising openers Alastair Cook and Ian Bell as the first was searching for his depleted form. They made a positive beginning and accumulated 30 runs in the first seven overs and Cook posted 4 fours in the next two overs as Bell continued from where he left in the previous match. The skipper accomplished his fifty in the 17^th over and the first hundred of the innings was scored in the 18^th over with a couple of four.

Ian Bell added another fifty in his tally during the 20^th over but he was caught in the cover by Chris Gayle off Darren Sammy for 53 off 64 balls with 7 fours. Jonathan Trott came in next as the rate of scoring went down until the 30^th over but they picked up in the coming overs. Alastair Cook was the most aggressive of the two and hammered his fifth ODI century on the second ball of the 36^th over.

Cook was finally caught in mid-off by Lendl Simmons off Sammy for 112 off 120 deliveries with the assistance of 1 six and 13 fours. Jonathan Trott and Ravi Bopara remained unbeaten for 43 and 19 runs respectively as the target was achieved by smashing 239 runs with eight wickets in hand and five overs to spare.

West Indies utilized eight bowlers during the England innings but Darren Sammy was the only successful bowler with a couple of wickets.

England won the match comfortably with a huge margin of eight wickets and is leading the series 2-0 as the third and final ODI will be played on June 22, 2012, at Headingly, Leeds.