Gayle onslaught propels West Indies to series win
Chris Gayle smashed seven sixes and four fours in his 38-ball 67 .
Chris Gayle smashed seven sixes and four fours in his 38-ball 67 .

becomes first man to pass 14,000 T20 runs along the way

A vintage Chris Gayle performance has blown away Australia and consigned them to a series-sealing defeat as the West Indies dominated their opponents in the third T20 International in St Lucia.
Gayle, months away from his 42nd birthday, emerged from a form slump to recapture his magnificent best in brutal onslaught featuring seven sixes that ensured the Windies snagged an unassailable 3-0 series lead at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground.

The Aussies made three changes to their side but their batters misfired for a third consecutive match as a suffocating bowling performance from the Windies, led once again by leg-spinner Fabian Allen (2-18 off four overs), restricted them to 6-141.
Recalled speedster Riley Meredith was expensive but otherwise made an encouraging return, bowling with venom and bouncing back from Gayle hitting him for back-to-back sixes (including the biggest of the night that went over the Johnson Charles stand) to dismiss the Windies No.3.

By that point Gayle had hit 67 off just 38 deliveries, allowing stand-in captain Nicholas Pooran (32no off 27) to win it with the Windies’ ninth six to seal a six-wicket win with 31 balls to spare.
Coming into Monday evening’s clash Gayle had averaged just 12.75 in nine innings since returning to the Windies T20 side earlier this year, but he delivered a statement innings to suggest he can still be a force at the highest level.

After crashing Josh Hazlewood for 19 runs in an electrifying start to the Windies innings, the veteran left-hander hit four sixes off Australia’s only spinner Adam Zampa, including three in a row to bring up a 33-ball half-century.
He became the first man to pass 14,000 T20 runs along the way and look odds on to play in yet another T20 World Cup.

Only Mitchell Starc was able to curtail the Windies batters, taking 1-15 from his four overs after going wicketless in the first two games.
Hazlewood (0-33 off four), Zampa (0-34 off three) and Meredith were all expensive.
Australia shuffled their middle-order, bringing Alex Carey and Ashton Turner in for dropped Josh Philippe and the injured Ben McDermott, but it was largely the same story as the first two matches as the Windies delivered a clever bowling performance.

Aaron Finch, now with 40 runs in three innings at a strike-rate of 90.90 for the series, looked to be finding his groove but he was out to a match-turning catch by Fabian Allen in the deep.
Bravo fumbled the skied chance on the mid-wicket boundary but Allen had sprinted around from long-on to be front and centre to dive for the rebound off his teammate’s leg.
Top-scorer Moises Henriques (33 off 29) was the only Australian to hit a six, doing so twice, in an Aussie total he admitted was at least 20 runs short of par.

Series leading wicket-taker Hayden Walsh continued his hold over the Aussies, with the leg-spinner taking 2-18 from four overs and was unlucky not to have a third victim when Pooran fluffed a stumping opportunity off Henriques.
Walsh, the former USA player who was once a net bowler for the Aussies, now has eight wickets at 8.75 with an economy rate of 5.83.

After Finch won his third consecutive toss and, unlike Friday and Saturday’s games, elected to bat. Australia’s openers got off to their best start of the tour with Matthew Wade (23 off 14) finding the boundary four times including off Sheldon Cottrell’s first ball of the innings.
But from 0-41 in the fifth over, the familiar middle-overs struggles began as the in-form Mitch Marsh (9 off 12) and the recalled Alex Carey (13 off 9) both failed to make meaningful contributions.

A suffocating death bowling effort from the experienced Windies meant the 59-run stand between Moises Henriques (33 off 29) and Ashton Turner (24 off 22 in his first game of the series) came off a sluggish 44 balls.
Canny veteran Bravo (1-17 off three overs) delivered a terrific two-wicket final over that went for only four runs, wagging his finger at Turner and Dan Christian when he pulled off a last-ball run out following a pinpoint yorker.

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