Ireland has good chance to advance into the quarter-finals.
By Sujeet Rajan
A confident, free-flowing and hard-hitting Ireland beat a disjointed looking West Indies by four wickets, chasing down what seemed an impregnable 304, with over four overs to spare, at the picturesque Saxton Oval in Nelson, New Zealand. Ireland also broke the jinx of batting second and falling short of the 300 plus runs that teams batting first in this World cup had notched up till then.
The West Indies, who were in dire straits at 87 for 5 after a rash of ambitious shots that went askew, from the top and middle order, showed the depth of their powerful batting, with Lendl Simmons hitting a fine century and former captain Darren Sammy chipping in with a characteristic blazing knock.
The 300 plus scorecard seemed to follow the pattern of prior matches in the tournament, and seemed inevitable that this match too would go on the lines of the South Africa-Zimbabwe encounter, where the Proteas staged a fine comeback after they looked on the verge of a meek total, and the Australia-England, and the New Zealand versus Sri Lanka ties.
But the Irish, who had upset Pakistan in the 2007 World Cup, and then beat England in a high-scoring game in Bengaluru, in the 2011 World Cup, scoring more than 300 in that game too to overhaul the target, had clearly a game-plan that bamboozled the Windies.
The Windies, scorned in international cricket for their players abandoning their recent series against India, and reeling from the ongoing strife with the national cricket board that has demoralized the players in no small measure, also have the uphill task of curbing oppositions without the services of Sunil Narine. He is the only Windies bowler who could have made a difference to the end result in the tie against Ireland, if he was there. But he is back home, resting and biding his time to make a comeback after a surgery.
It was not just that Paul Stirling, Ed Joyce – who was playing his third World Cup, and Niall O’Brien all came close to scoring centuries with fine, aggressive stroke play, disdainfully hitting both the Windies quicks and spinners into the stands and the hoardings with consummate ease. It was the way the Windies offered puny resistance to the effortless carnage of the Irish that was the hallmark of the game.
The worst, perhaps, was the sight of Chris Gayle ambling in casually to pick up a push near the square leg umpire, inside the 30 yard circle, even as the two Irish batsmen were scrambling to reach their creases, expecting a possible run-out. Gayle then turned and made a remark with a smile to another teammate.
If those who are uninitiated in cricket were to have seen that moment – not cared two hoots about Gayle’s history with the willow, they would have thought that cricket is perhaps a lazy team sport, and the West Indies the laziest team in the world.
But then the likes of Gayle are comfortable with their own selves, knowing that there is life beyond the West Indies team, in the IPLs and the Big Bashes of the world.