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West Indies completed their series against Zimbabwe yesterday, taking the series 4-1 - but once again, Zimbabwe's spinners made sure the Windies had to work for their win, even when chasing a well below-par total after Zimbabwe's batting imploded once again. Having won the toss, West Indies put Zimbabwe in to bat, and were immediately in the wickets as Hamilton Masakadza went without scoring. He was the first of a procession of wickets, with Darren Sammy (3/33) leading the carnage - Zimbabwe were down to #6, Charles Coventry (56), before they found someone able to put down some roots, and by then the side's chances of posting a competitive total were long gone. Coventry's departure signalled the beginning of the end, and Zimbabwe were bowled out for 161 on the final ball of the innings.

That left the West Indies with what should have been a fairly straightforward chase, on paper, and the opening pair of Adrian Barath (16) and Chris Gayle (63) led the charge, with the Windies putting on 96 runs in 15.2 overs befoew Gayle finally departed. Zimbabwe's bowlers clearly weren't going to simply lie down, though, and when Gayle, Deonarine (3) and the Bravo brothers (14 & 0) fell in quick succession there was a glimmer of light for Zimbabwe. With Gayle's early onslaught having reduced the required rate to just over 2/over, though, Zimbabwe really needed to bowl the Windies out to secure a win - but the arrival of Kieron Pollard (36 from 22 balls) signalled the end of Zimbabwe's defiance, and the winning runs were knocked off in the 28th over.

Now, if that match report sounds vaguely familiar, it is: it's a copy'n'paste of what I wrote for the 4th ODI, with a few names & scores changed. In broad strokes, though, both the 4th and 5th matches followed the same, depressing script, and that's possible the most damning indictment of Zimbabwe's performance in yesterday's match: nothing appears to have been learnt. If Zimbabwe are truly planning to return to Test cricket before the end of this year, as David Houghton has indicated, then some serious soul-searching is required as to what went wrong with this series after Zimbabwe's stellar start. Full scorecard below the cut.
Zimbabwe 161 (50 overs; Coventry 56, Sammy 3/33), West Indies 165/6 (27.4 overs; Gayle 63, Utseya 2/41). West Indies win by 6 wickets.

Zimbabwe innings (50 overs maximum)  	
                                                R  	M  	B  	4s  	6s  	SR
V Sibanda 	c Barath b Sammy 	        8 	75 	49 	0 	0 	16.32
H Masakadza 	c Sammy b Rampaul 	        0 	8 	6 	0 	0 	0.00
T Maruma 	c Gayle b Rampaul 	        1 	28 	20 	0 	0 	5.00
BRM Taylor 	b Sammy 	                7 	22 	17 	1 	0 	41.17
T Taibu† 	c †Ramdin b Sammy 	        0 	2 	3 	0 	0 	0.00
CK Coventry 	run out (DJ Bravo) 	        56 	114 	88 	5 	0 	63.63
E Chigumbura 	c Sammy b Pollard 	        19 	37 	23 	2 	0 	82.60
GA Lamb 	c Deonarine b Benn 	        16 	52 	42 	0 	0 	38.09
AG Cremer 	not out 	                19 	40 	25 	2 	0 	76.00
P Utseya* 	c Pollard b DJ Bravo 	        7 	13 	17 	0 	0 	41.17
RW Price 	run out (†Ramdin/Rampaul) 	4 	15 	13 	0 	0 	30.76
	Extras 	(lb 10, w 11, nb 3) 	        24 					
	Total 	(all out; 50 overs) 	        161 	(3.22 runs per over)

Fall of wickets1-6 (Masakadza, 1.5 ov), 2-12 (Maruma, 7.6 ov), 3-24 (Taylor, 13.3 ov), 
4-24 (Taibu, 13.6 ov), 5-25 (Sibanda, 15.4 ov), 6-63 (Chigumbura, 25.1 ov), 7-120 (Lamb, 40.1 ov), 
8-127 (Coventry, 42.1 ov), 9-147 (Utseya, 46.1 ov), 10-161 (Price, 49.6 ov)

Bowling 	O 	M 	R 	W 	Econ 		
DE Bernard 	5 	2 	8 	0 	1.60 	(1nb, 3w) 	
R Rampaul 	10 	2 	24 	2 	2.40 	(2nb, 1w) 	
DJ Bravo 	10 	1 	38 	1 	3.80 	(3w) 	
DJG Sammy 	10 	3 	33 	3 	3.30 	(1w) 	
SJ Benn 	10 	0 	26 	1 	2.60 		
KA Pollard 	5 	0 	22 	1 	4.40 	(1w) 	


West Indies innings (target: 162 runs from 50 overs) 	
                                                R 	M 	B 	4s 	6s 	SR
AB Barath 	lbw b Chigumbura 	        14 	13 	19 	3 	0 	73.68
CH Gayle* 	c Taylor b Utseya 	        63 	55 	41 	8 	2 	153.65
DM Bravo 	st †Taibu b Lamb 	        14 	46 	35 	1 	0 	40.00
D Ramdin† 	not out 	                21 	53 	34 	1 	0 	61.76
N Deonarine 	c Chigumbura b Cremer 	        3 	11 	6 	0 	0 	50.00
DJ Bravo 	st †Taibu b Utseya 	        0 	2 	2 	0 	0 	0.00
KA Pollard 	c Masakadza b Price 	        36 	22 	20 	3 	3 	180.00
DE Bernard 	not out 	                4 	8 	9 	0 	0 	44.44
	Extras 	(b 3, lb 3, w 4) 	        10 					
	Total 	(6 wickets; 27.4 overs) 	165 	(5.96 runs per over)

Did not bat: DJG Sammy, R Rampaul, SJ Benn

Fall of wickets: 1-20 (Barath, 4.1 ov), 2-96 (Gayle, 15.2 ov), 3-96 (DM Bravo, 16.3 ov), 
4-104 (Deonarine, 18.6 ov), 5-104 (DJ Bravo, 19.2 ov), 6-153 (Pollard, 24.6 ov)

Bowling 	O 	M 	R 	W 	Econ 		
E Chigumbura 	4 	0 	30 	1 	7.50 	(2w) 	
RW Price 	7 	0 	32 	1 	4.57 	(2w) 	
GA Lamb 	5 	1 	20 	1 	4.00 		
P Utseya 	7 	0 	41 	2 	5.85 		
AG Cremer 	3 	0 	17 	1 	5.66 		
T Maruma 	1.4 	0 	19 	0 	11.40