West Indies eye crucial Super Eight win

KARACHI: The race for the second spot from Group F is wide open as West Indies take on group-leaders Australia in today’s second match.

Australia have clearly come out favourites, still unbeaten and having been tested against Sri Lanka when their top order collapsed. Cameron White and Mitchell Johnson shared a superb sixth-wicket stand of 101 to establish a total befitting Australia’s reputation. West Indies, on the other hand, are still relying heavily on Chris Gayle to perform and score the majority of the runs, case-in-point being their recent two matches when they beat India but lost to Sri Lanka.

Mathematical victories West Indies will qualify if they beat Australia and Sri Lanka lose to India, equalling Australia’s two wins in the group. However, if Sri Lanka win, the equation boils down to net-run-rate where the West Indies are at -0.175 while Sri Lanka are on -0.6. In this scenario, West indies will need to win by at least 21 runs more than Sri Lanka’s winning margin to offset the run-rate difference. A loss against Australia and the hosts are out of the tournament.

Published in the Express Tribune, May 11th,  2010