SHAR­JAH – A record half-cen­tu­ry on de­but from Al­ick Athanaze fol­lowed up a ca­reer-best spell from Kevin Sin­clair and en­abled West In­dies to clinch a four-wick­et win against hosts Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates in the third One-day In­ter­na­tion­al on Fri­day and com­plete a 3-0 se­ries sweep.

Left-han­der Athanaze cracked nine fours and three six­es in the top score of 65 from 45 balls and equalled the record for the fastest half-cen­tu­ry on ODI de­but, and the Caribbean side suc­cess­ful­ly chased 185 in the day-night con­test at the Shar­jah In­ter­na­tion­al Crick­et Sta­di­um.

Sin­clair, 23, play­ing in his fourth ODI, set things up with a spell of four for 24 from 7.1 overs to earn the Play­er-of-the-Match award, and leg-spin­ner Yan­nic Cari­ah sup­port­ed with two for 34 from eight overs, and the UAE were bowled out for 184 in 36.1 overs af­ter they chose to bat.

Open­ing the bat­ting, Athanaze reached his half-cen­tu­ry from on­ly 26 balls when he drilled a de­liv­ery from off-spin­ner Ro­han Mustafa through ex­tra cov­er for his sev­enth four to equal the record Krunal Pandya of hosts In­dia set against Eng­land two years ago in Pune.

The left-hand­ed Do­mini­can bats­man opened his ac­count with a four over mid-wick­et off pac­er Ju­naid Sid­dique in the first over of the chase, and stepped up a gear with two six­es in three balls over the square leg re­gion in the next over off left-arm spin­ner Aayan Afzal Khan.

He added three fours– two in the arc be­hind square on the off-side – in the third over off Sid­dique, who he whipped through mid-on for an­oth­er four in the sev­enth over be­fore he pulled left-arm pac­er Muham­mad Jawadul­lah over back­ward square leg for six in the next over to move with­in reach of 50.

Athanaze dom­i­nat­ed an open­ing stand of 35 with John­son Charles, and he was the main dri­ving force be­hind a sec­ond wick­et part­ner­ship of 66 with Shamar Brooks that put the vis­i­tors firm­ly on track be­fore he was lbw to Khan with 84 need­ed from 35.2 overs.

Brooks made 33, stand-in cap­tain Ros­ton Chase was not out on 27, and Kea­cy Car­ty made 20, but West In­dies en­dured a cri­sis of con­fi­dence and a rel­a­tive­ly straight­for­ward chase be­came a bit dicey when they lost three wick­ets for 13 in the span of 18 balls.

They were 138 for three at the halfway stage af­ter Brooks was caught at deep mid-wick­et off Khan in the 23rd over, and they stum­bled to 145 for five when leg-spin­ner Karthik Meiyap­pan nabbed Car­ty and Kavem Hodge off suc­ces­sive balls in the 26th over.

Left-han­der Ray­mon Reifer joined Chase, made 15 and put 36 for the sixth wick­et to get them back on track be­fore he was caught at deep back­ward square leg off Jawadul­lah with four need­ed from 96 balls.

Chase did not have the ho­n­our of hit­ting the win­ning runs in his first in­ter­na­tion­al lead­ing the Caribbean side, but he faced the even­tu­al fi­nal de­liv­ery of the match, a wide from Jawadul­lah that sealed the win with 89 balls re­main­ing.

The vis­i­tors rest­ed their ap­point­ed cap­tain Shai Hope and Chase led the side, and they al­so gave a break to Play­er-of-the-Se­ries Bran­don King, as well as pac­ers Odean Smith and Do­minic Drakes, re­plac­ing them with Athanaze, Reifer, Sin­clair, and all-rounder Keemo Paul af­ter they won the first ODI by sev­en wick­ets last Sun­day at the same venue, where they al­so won the sec­ond ODI by 78 runs.

UAE made six changes with Aryansh Shar­ma, Asif Khan, Basil Hameed, San­chit Shar­ma, Ad­hitya Shet­ty, and Za­hoor Khan all be­ing left out, and Rameez Shahzad, Mustafa, Meiyap­pan, and Sid­dique com­ing in, as well as new­com­ers Ethan D’Souza and Jawadul­lah.

Ear­li­er, Sin­clair trig­gered a bat­ting col­lapse af­ter Vri­itya Ar­avind an­chored two suc­ces­sive half-cen­tu­ry stands with his cap­tain Muham­mad Waseem and Shahzad in a top score of 70 off 75 balls, and the UAE reached 142 for two in the 23rd over.

Reifer got Waseem for 42 with his left-arm pace in the 12th over af­ter the UAE cap­tain put on 69 with Ar­avind, and Sin­clair trans­formed the com­plex­ion of the match when he held a re­turn catch to dis­miss Shahzad for 27 af­ter the bats­man added 55 for the third wick­et with Ar­avind.

Sin­clair and Cari­ah carved up the rest of the bat­ting with tidy bowl­ing in the mid­dle pas­sage, and there were two need­less run outs, and the hosts lost their last sev­en wick­ets for 34 in the span of 78 balls.

West In­dies will now pack their bags and on Sat­ur­day head to Zim­bab­we, where they will play with nine oth­er teams in the fi­nal qual­i­fi­ca­tion tour­na­ment for the ICC Men’s ODI Crick­et World Cup 2023 In­dia.

The Caribbean side have been drawn in Group A along with Nepal, Nether­lands, Unit­ed States, and hosts Zim­bab­we for the qual­i­fiers, which starts on Sun­day, June 18, and runs un­til Ju­ly 9 in the cities of Harare and Bu­l­awayo.

CMC

Brief Scores:

UNIT­ED ARAB EMI­RATES 184 off 36.1 overs (Vri­itya Ar­avind 70, Muham­mad Waseem 42, Rameez Shahzad 27; Kevin Sin­clair 4-24, Yan­nic Cari­ah 2-34).

WEST IN­DIES 185 for six off 35.1 overs (Al­ick Athanaze 65, Shamarh Brooks 39, Ros­ton Chase 27 not out, Kea­cy Car­ty 20; Muham­mad Jawadul­lah 2-36, Aayan Afzal Khan 2-40, Karthik Meiyap­pan 2-41).

Re­sult: West In­dies won by four wick­ets (89 balls re­main­ing).

Se­ries: West In­dies win three-match se­ries 3-0.

Toss: Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates.

Play­er-of-the-Match: A. Athanaze (West In­dies).

Play­er-of-the-Se­ries: B. King (West In­dies).

Um­pires: Ak­bar Ali, Ah­san Raza (Pak­istan).

TV um­pire: Aasif Iqbal.

Match ref­er­ee: J. Sri­nath (In­dia).

Re­serve um­pire: Shi­ju Sam.