Rain a threat as West Indies look to clinch spot in Super Eight

The rain-threat looms large as Ireland and the West Indies gear up for Group B’s final match on Monday, with the winners moving into the Super Eight stage.

Australia qualified for the next phase after they won their truncated tie against the West Indies on Saturday on the D/L method, ensuring Monday’s clash will be a knockout affair between Darren Sammy’s men and Ireland. After a disappointing end to their bright start, the Caribbean side will be hoping for the rain to stay away, but Ireland will be desperate for some action. A washout means Ireland will be straightaway dumped from the competition as the West Indies enjoy a better net run-rate.

As if rain wasn’t the only headache, Ireland are also affected by illness to three of their key players – Paul Stirling, George Dockrell and Alex Cusack. The trio, in bed the whole of Saturday due to stomach upset, is expected to be fit by the match-day though. The Irish, patchy to say the least against Australia in their opening encounter, will have to bring their A game to the table to even remotely hope for an upset win.

The Windies showed they are a batting side, smashing the Aussie bowlers all around the park to set up a huge total. Anything could have happened if the match lasted the distance but there’s no denying that the Caribbeans bowled too many loose deliveries.

Sammy, however, was confident that his bowlers will be different against Ireland.
“Last time we played them, I think, we bowled them out for 60-odd or so. This game (against Australia) in no way is going to dampen our spirits. We have good belief in our camp, we just have to come up and execute our plans and do better with the ball,” he pointed out.

That said, the Windies will heavily bank on Chris Gayle’s batting muscle power to get over the line and the Irish will be burning the midnight oil to chalk strategies to dismiss him. But, going by the evidence of Saturday’s show, it’s clear that Windies have a fearsome depth in their batting.

Tough task

“It’s obviously going to be pretty difficult to stop them,” admitted  Ireland skipper William Porterfield talking about the Windies’ batsmen.

“They are specialists in this form of the game. (They) play in all different competitions throughout the world in this format.

“So it’s not going to be easy but as I said, it doesn’t matter who is at the other end as long as you control what you want to do with the ball and put it in the right areas. They can obviously be destructive and they have got that capability,” he explained.