Kandy, Sri Lanka – A superb three-wicket haul by Man-of-the-Match Sunil Narine and heroic bowling and batting from Marlon Samuels were crucial performances as West Indies beat New Zealand to qualify for the semi-finals of the ICC World T20 tournament.
Off-spinner Narine was deadly with his variations and had the excellent figures of 4-0-20-3 as West Indies held New Zealand to 139-5 off 20 overs at the Pallekele International Stadium on Monday. The match ended in a thrilling tie with a wicket off the final ball via a superb direct hit with a rocket throw by substitute Dwayne Smith from deep midwicket.
Samuels volunteered to bowl the last over with the Black Caps needing 13 runs to win and also bowled the “Super Over” when the match went to the One-Over Eliminator.
Earlier in the day, Chris Gayle made 30 off 14 balls with three fours and two sixes, while Samuels made 24 and Kieron Pollard found some form with a fighting 28 as West Indies were bowled out for 139 off 19.3 overs.
After the New Zealand innings, the match then went to the One-Over Eliminator and Samuels again put his hand up to bowl, despite carrying a shoulder injury. The over went for 17 runs. With 18 to win and a spot in the semis up for grabs, Chris Gayle launched the first ball into the crowd and Samuels ended the game with a huge six over midwicket to spark Windies celebrations.
West Indies captain Darren Sammy was all smiles after the match. Their place in the semi-finals was confirmed when Sri Lanka beat England by 19 runs.
“It was a cracker of a match…great match from start to finish. It was good to see we had the strength and held our nerve to pull through. Congrats to everyone on the way we handled the pressure. It was a must-win and everyone stayed focussed to bring it home,” Sammy said.
“Narine was excellent with the ball and his last spell was something like two wickets for five runs off two overs at a stage when we really needed it. It was a brilliant performance and I’m sure it has given him confidence going into the semis. He delivered today. We all know what he is capable of doing – bowling in these pressure situations.
“I was happy with the much better bowling display from us and it feels good that we got the result that we wanted. Eighteen runs in the ‘Super Over’ with Chris batting, it is always possible. We back Chris to clear the boundary. Six runs off a no-ball was just a perfect start. When games get so tight the true West Indies celebrations come out.
“And also Marlon Samuels…he’s suffering from bad shoulders and that’s why he doesn’t bowl too many overs. Today he said ‘give me the ball’ and he did the job with ball and bat. We also had a brilliant run out from Dwayne Smith. Chris also held a superb catch at slip and that changed the game at a crucial stage. Ravi Rampaul again bowled well with the new ball at the top and Samuel Badree was good on his return.”
Monday’s victory means that both West Indies men’s and women’s teams have qualified for the semi-finals for the first time in the same World T20 tournament. Sammy believes this is a good sign for West Indies cricket.
“I’m extremely happy for the girls as well. They have been doing really well. It is good that both Caribbean teams are in the semi-finals and it’s great that both our teams have made it this far. We are moving forward and we will both look to win the trophies. We have two more hurdles to jump and hopefully we will jump them and bring some joy to people of the Caribbean.”
West Indies men will travel to Colombo on Tuesday morning. The semi-final will be on Friday at 7 pm (9:30 am Eastern Caribbean Time/8:30 am Jamaica Time). Their opponents will be known when Group 2 is completed on Tuesday. The women’s semi-final will be against Australia, also on Friday at 2:30 pm (5 am Eastern Caribbean Time/4 am Jamaica Time).
I love how the West Indies are playing!Great team effort and Sammy is so well spoken.
from month end….marpin you are no longer wanted in my household….get out!
u can watch it online. type in livecricket.com u will get options. so search through until u get it. thats how i view the action. pray for them
Congratulation Windies and good luck in the semi
finals.
Go West Indies. Please make us proud. You can produce a good finish. Proud of you guys.
go windies go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
The Issue i have is that im unable to View the T-20s well due Marpin’s Poor Medium of using the Internet to Broadcast events in that sort of duration knowing the drops offs that occur…
Marpin to me has losted many points..
POOR PRO RELATIONS…………..
marpin cricket is our heritage sport, it is only the fibre which unite us as a caribbean people. we
need to see live every world tournament period
u can do better than that.stop promoting baseball and NFL these are not indigenous sports in this island .Failure to cmply will lead to a boycutt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111
what a win man,congrats windies
we need to pull off the semi against the aussies
and march on to win the finals.Ssmmt u and the fellas can do it
I am so proud of the west indies team. Although my pressure went up during batting performance but in the end we held our heads high. I am with you all,all the way make the caribbean people bow their heads down in shame that say we cannot win the tournament.Well done again.
Congratulations West Indies!!! What do they about cricket, those who only know cricket
?
Exciting game TEAM Windies. Now iron out the kinks for the upcoming semifinal match.
Let’s go Dear Leader Sammy and the rest of TEAM Windies!!! WI All in!!
dno plz plz plz, tell marpin to give us some good quality cricket!
Check Channel 26 on Marpin. The first game usually begins at 6am and the 2nd game normally starts at 10am.
Marpin should use their head when it comes to the cricket. Normally SportsMax and CMC are the ones that acquire the broadcast rights for international cricket in the Caribbean. Recently, ESPN Caribbean has come into the picture and has acquired the broadcast rights for this T20 World Cup and a number of upcoming regional and international cricket tournaments for the next few years.
Marpin has two ESPN channels but not the ESPN Caribbean feed. Hence Marpin should either add ESPN Caribbean to their channel line up or replace one of their present ESPN channels with the ESPN Caribbean feed. That should save them on cost.
We are Caribbean people. Why would we want to watch horse riding or a US spelling bee competition when cricket is playing? Marpin, please tailor your channel line up to suit our interest us as Caribbean people. Cricket is the main sport which interests us on a serious basis.
Half of the time when you call Marpin to ask if they broadcasting the cricket games, they never aware of the Tournaments going on and then half way or at the end of it you seeing some pirate thing (online streaming)going on, that is such ashame, they need to get better than that..
Great going West Indies. I am with you all the way during the Semi-finals. All the best.
WI all in!!!!!!