West Indies buckle under phantom host pressure
The West Indies’ campaign to become the first host nation to lift the World Cup took another hit today in below par performance against New Zealand. Hoping to bounce back from a thumping defeat against Australia, the Windies were asked to bat by New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming but a lack of concentration saw the hosts commit the cardinal one day sin - not batting out your overs. The Windies could bat for only 44 overs, scoring just 177. New Zealand then saw the runs off with over 10 overs to spare, spearheaded by 80* from the ubiqitous Scott Styris. Stephen Fleming had earlier got things started with a useful 45 before he was run out going for an unnecessarily risky single.
This was arguably a worse loss than against Australia two days previous. The decision by New Zealand to put the Windies in was a gamble on Fleming’s part, and a gamble designed to test the Windies’ determination, after they had made adjustments to the their team to introduce an extra batsman in the form of youngster Simmons, weakening their bowling attack in the process. The gamble for New Zealand paid off, but the Windies’ gamble did not - their batting lineup failed to score enough runs and their lack of bowling depth didn’t provide the necessary fire power to oust the likes of Scott Styris.
Considering that four victories in the Super 8 will be required to see a team through the semi-finals, that means the Windies will now have to win against South Africa if they are to have any hope of going through. On the basis of this result, such a feat seems unlikely.
Tags: cricket, new-zealand, west-indiesRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Cricket
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