West Indies suffered a four-wicket defeat against Ireland in their opening match of the ICC Cricket World Cup at Saxton Oval in Nelson New Zeland, on Monday . The Windies were sent into bat and reached 304-7 off 50 overs. Ireland replied with 307-6 off 45.5 overs to record their first win over the West Indies in an official One-Day International.
West Indies recovered from 87-5 to post a competitive score on a good pitch. The innings was rebuild by a superb sixth-wicket stand between Lendl Simmons and Darren Sammy. The pair added 154 runs to equal the West Indies record set by Richie Richardson and Jeff Dujon.
Simmons scored 102 – his second ODI century – off 84 balls with nine fours and five sixes. Sammy hit a career-best 89 – off just 67 balls with nine boundaries and four sixes – to better the 84 he made against Australia in St Lucia three years ago.
Ireland played well and were led by opener Paul Stirling, who made 92 to win the Man-of-the-Match award. He received excellent support from Ed Joyce (84) and Niall O’Brien (79 not out). Pacer Jerome Taylor was West Indies best bowler with 3-71.
West Indies will travel to Christchurch on Tuesday as they prepare for their second Pool B match against Pakistan on Saturday.
Below is the audio of an interview with Darren Sammy after the match.
https://soundcloud.com/windiescricket/wicb-media-cwc-2015-2015-02-16-darren-sammymp3
It doesnt matter how the West Indies Team performs, the board still takes in over USD 44 millions in revenues. I think Trinidad should represent the West Indies. The WICB needs to go!!
The thing that separate the west Indies team from others is greed.
Yes no one plays for nothing, but modern west Indies players appear to put pounds and dollars before passion. See how they play in ipl and other high paying games.
This result is not as surprising as many cricket fans might believe. Those who have followed the recent misfortunes of our beloved West Indies team would have probably noticed the slow, steady progression to the current sad state of affairs. How can we lose to Ireland, you ask? Well, first of all, over past two to three decades, most of the cricketing world have either over taken the once dominant Windies while previously unheralded opposition have caught up to us. Former minnows like Ireland, Bangladesh and even Afghanistan have raised their game while the Windies continue to struggle to find good form. Though the Windies have done an admirable job in the shortest version of the game, we have not been able carry that level of success over to the One Day and Test formats. Secondly, Windies lack effective and penetrative bowling. The absence of Narine and Shillingford also hurts. In spite of this, I will remain hopeful and continue to “rally ’round the West Indies”.
How does WI go into a 50 over game without a genuine spinner ? Baffling !
I do believe west indies could have played a better game but the side is you ng and somewhat the inexperience of the captain holder is not helping matters i must admit
Change is a must not, an option, from top to bottom flush them. Cricket is big man thing. no #alls. enough said.
The selectors/management must go!!! what is the young Bravo doing on that team? complete joke. west indies will soon be back home.
Symptomatic of our W.I. malaise!