ICC World Cup Qualifiers 2023 Points Table: Updated standings after West Indies vs Sri Lanka, Super Sixes Match 9
The ninth game of the ICC World Cup Qualifiers kicked off between West Indies and Sri Lanka on July 7 at Harare Sports Club. It was yet another forgettable day for West Indies and its disheartened cricket fans as Sri Lanka steamrolled the two-time ODI World Cup champions by eight wickets.
Sri Lanka has already booked their berth for the World Cup happening later this year. While for West Indies, they were playing for a solitary win to end their disastrous tour to Zimbabwe on a high.
The Windies were highly ineffective with the ball right throughout the tournament. Bowling has been their major weakness in this year’s Qualifier which has led to their catastrophic downfall in international cricket. They leave the super six with only 1 win with an NRR of -0.204. In every match they played, they failed to bowl out the opposition.
While Sri Lanka on the other hand, have remained unbeaten in this tournament and have prospered well in all departments. Their spin bowling department in particular has resumed them on several occasions.
Although they did manage to receive a scare against the Dutch, however, they had enough experience under their belt to overcome them in a low-scoring thriller. They have won all five games in the Super Six stage with an astounding NRR of +1.6. They will now face the Netherlands in the finals which will be held on Sunday, July 9.
Sri Lanka bamboozle the deflated West Indies side eight wickets
The Windies were disappointing with the bat once again. The top order faltered as they failed to get the ball rolling in the earlier half of the game. There was no impetus shown by the middle order too which reduced West Indies to 123-7 in 28.1 overs. However, Keacy Carty batted out of his skin to resurrect the West Indies innings with a sensible knock of 87(96).
With some late contributions from Romario Shepherd and Kevin Sinclair, West Indies were able to crawl their way to 243. Maheesh Theekshana (4/34) and Dushan Hemantha (2/49) unleashed a vicious spin web picking up six wickets in total which crippled the West Indies batting lineup.
In the second innings, the West Indies bowlers did no justice to their wickets column with Kevin Sinclair and Akel Hosein being the only wicket-takers. Others proved to be highly futile and leaked quite a few runs thanks to their wayward bowling.
Sri Lankan openers featuring the likes of Pathum Nissanka and Dimuth Karunaratne build a rock-solid partnership of 190 runs which virtually batted the Windies out of the game. In the end, Sri Lanka swiftly got to their target in no time and won the game by eight wickets with 34 balls to spare.