New Zealand vs West Indies: Martin Guptill, and four talking points
Martin Guptill scored 235* which was also the highest individual score at the World Cup. (Source: Reuters)
The New Zealand-West Indies contest was much more than the Martin Guptill knock. Here’s a look at the talking points from the sixathon quarter-final in Wellington on Saturday.(Full Coverage| Venues | Fixtures)
READ:I am incredibly proud of what happened on Saturday, says Martin Guptill
Martin Guptill: 163 balls, 237 runs, strike rate of 145.39, 24 fours, 11 big sixes. Enough said. The right-hander was the star of the day, and he definitely played the knock of the World Cup.
The Boult show: Seamer Trent Boult continued with his terrific run in the tournament. With 19 scalps, the left-arm quick overtook Mitchell Starc as the leading wicket-taker in the 2015 edition. Seeing the other two seamers – Tim Southee and Adam Milne – concede over 10 an over, Boult put his best foot forward against an explosive batting order. He changed his angle, line and length to keep the batsmen on their toes. 4/44 in a contest where most bowlers went for plenty is a performance worth the praise. The little, but critical, adjustments Boult made right through his spell serve an important lesson for the fellow seamers.
READ: We bowled too full and didn’t land our yorkers, says Jason Holder
Strange shots: West Indies batsmen just don’t learn. They continue to play the same shots, without realising that every strip, and bowler, is not the same. The manner in which Johnson Charles and Lendl Simmons got out was very frustrating. While Charles was cleaned by Boult when the right-hander attempted a big heave over covers only to completely miss it, Simmons chased a swinging delivery from the same bowler and edged it to Marin Guptill at second slip. The asking rate was very high, but little application is the primary ingredient of any innings.
PHOTOS: Martin Guptill’s 163-ball 237 powers New Zealand into semis
Dan, the Man: After a brilliant show with the ball early in the tournament, Daniel Vettori sealed a tense win over Bangladesh with his heroics with the bat and today was the turn of Vettori-the-fielder to serve a late, but timely reminder. Standing relaxed with hands on his hips in the third-man region, Vettori lined himself up to attempt a Marlon Samuels catch off Boult’s bowling. Samuels flashed hard at a widish half-tracker, and stood still – admiring and expecting the ball sail over Vettori and the ropes. Vettori, who wasn’t quite at the edge of the ropes, made the little movement forward and jumped into the air when he saw the ball come towards him, and set to clear him. The lanky spinner raised his hand, plucked the ball out of thin air and recovered balance to trigger a wild wild celebration. If nothing, it was one of the finest catches ever taken.
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West Indies no-show: Black Caps batted the Windies out of the game when the co-hosts smashed 393/6. It was a mountain to climb, but writing off the Jason Holder-led unit at the innings break would have been a premature conclusion. A lot was expected from the likes of Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels and Darren Sammy to make, if not a win, a contest out of the quarter-final. With all due respect to the intimidating Kiwi attack, the Caribbean nation had the ability to tear the best apart. That, however, didn’t happen on Saturday as the West Indies staged a tame surrender in Wellington. Gayle did excite the spectators with eight sixes early in the innings, but chasing 393 can’t be a one-man affair.
Source:: Indian Express
