Pallekele: Some superb batting by Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels and some poor bowling from New Zealand’s Tim Southee in the Super Over helped West Indies win the Group 2 match if the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup. The result also means that New Zealand are knocked out of the tournament.
This was the second super over involving the Kiwis, the first they lost against Sri Lanka. In this match, captain Ross Taylor who batted beautifully earlier in the day came in to bat along with Brendon McCullum. West Indies chose Marlon Samuels to ball the super over, Samuels earlier bowled the 20th over which forced the game into the super over.
Some intelligent batting from Taylor saw New Zealand post a good target of 17 runs. West Indies opened with Chris Gayle and Samuels. Southee bowled a no ball right up which was dispatches for a huge six by Gayle over the long-off boundary. On the free hit Gayle could only manage a single. West Indies need five runs of the last two deliveries when Marlon Samuels hit a Southee full-toss over the square leg boundary for a six.
Earlier in the day, New Zealand won the toss and elected to bowl first. Gayle who failed in the last match, started brilliantly hitting a couple of sixes. Charles unlike in the last match got out early. West Indies continued to lose wickets and even Gayle was scalped by Southee on 30. Most of the West Indies batsmen got start but could not carry on with their innings. Kieron Pollard played a descent little knock of 28 which saw West Indies reach a respectable total before getting bowled out with three deliveries to go.
New Zealand in reply lost the early wicket of Rob Nicol to an in-swinger from Ravi Rampaul. Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum played cautiously after that before McCullum was bowled by Samuel Badree for 22. Soon Guptill got out and it looked as if West Indies will run away with the match.
Ross Taylor coming into bat at number four played brilliantly right from the start and kept New Zealand in the run-chase. For West Indies, out of form bowler Sunil Narine bowled a beautiful spell taking three wickets and giving away only 20 runs. He bowled a brilliant penultimate over conceding only three runs and Kiwis needed 14 of the last over. Samuels than bowled some good Yorkers before getting hit for a six on his fourth delivery. New Zealand needing two runs of the last ball could only manage one and the match went into the super over.
Brief Score:
West Indies: 139/10 (Gayle 30, Southee 3-21)
New Zealand: 139/7 (Taylor 62*, Narine 3-20)
By Indian Sports News Network
