Early in the afternoon of Feb 27, 2015, Jason Holder bowled a shortish ball on middle and off and Faf du Plessis clipped it to leg for a single, bringing to a close yet another tidy over from Holder. As Holder collected his cap from the umpire and walked off, he had a number of reasons, as captain and opening bowler, to feel contented. Holder, the bowler, would have justifiably been proud of his opening spell of 5-2-9-1. Holder, the captain, would have been happy at the way West Indies had come back in the tournament with comprehensive wins against Zimbabwe and Pakistan, after the early defeat against a spirited Ireland and also with the fact that they had restricted South Africa to 30/1 in the first ten overs in the present match.
Little was he to know how things would unravel from there on. A South African team that had lost not just a little of its sheen after a drubbing at the hands of India was out to prove a point or hundred and set about to thoroughly bat West Indies out of the game. AB de Villiers, Holder’s counterpart, vented off the frustration of the defeat against India on the Windies with a blistering 162*, with records tumbling and the bowling becoming more and more hapless every passing minute. That Holder ended up with final figures of 10-2-104-1 says it all. The scarred West Indies team’s batting never got going and they crashed to a 257-run defeat.
Next up for West Indies were the Indians who were coasting along on an unbeaten run, one of only two undefeated teams in the tournament. On a typically bouncy WACA wicket, having picked an additional seamer over the lone specialist spinner, and having won the toss, West Indies chose to bat first—a debatable decision that they were to rue. There was pace and some movement off the deck, there was always bounce in the pitch and the opening overs were largely a series of plays-and-misses. The playing conditions demanded a great deal of application from the batsmen, but either West Indies were not capable of it or they were not inclined to do it. With Holder, the No. 9 batsman, top-scoring with a 57, West Indies were all out for 182.
That the total was only about 40 runs short of par was evident from the fact that India lost six wickets in getting to it, a very sensible 45* from Dhoni guiding them home. With better discipline in shot-selection, West Indies could well have made a match of it, as against the mess that they made of it—which, sadly, has left them dependent on other results to go their way to have a chance of qualification. With India beating Ireland as expected, it has come down to the final set of matches in Pool B to determine West Indies’ fate.
When West Indies play a must-win match against UAE on Sunday, they are likely to keep an eye and a half on the Pakistan-Ireland fixture as well. Assuming West Indies win against UAE, a win for Pakistan over Ireland will see Pakistan and West Indies entering the knockouts. However, a win for Ireland will leave West Indies in an unenviable net run-rate fight with Pakistan, that will, in all likelyhood, see Pakistan prevailing over West Indies. For now, West Indies will have to do the best they can with the things in their control—which reduces to simply winning as handsomely as they can against UAE. If they qualify for the Quarterfinals, it then is virtually a brand new tournament where they can shed their baggage and concentrate on winning three days and games of cricket. Knowing West Indies, they can quite well do that. But, knowing West Indies, they can lose to the UAE as well. Therein lies the appeal of this brand of Carribean Cricketing Calypso.
