West Indies' journey to the 2019 World Cup
Two-time world champions West Indies made it to the 2019 World Cup after winning their final Super Six match against Scotland courtesy the Duckworth-Lewis method. Their initial performances in the group stages were fairly decent.
West Indies were placed with Ireland, United Arab Emirates, Netherlands and PNG in Group A. Their first match was against the United Arab Emirates on 6th March 2018 at Old Hararians, Harare. West Indies captain Jason Holder won the toss and elected to bat first. Chris Gayle scored a brilliant 123 off 91 balls and Hetymer made 127 which helped West Indies post a massive total of 357 for 4 in 50 overs.
It was a great effort by UAE's batsmen with Rameez Shahzad remaining not out on 112, along with Shaiman Anwar, 64, Adnan Mufti, 45. West Indies though won the match by 60 runs.
In the second match, West Indies continued their brilliant form, beating PNG by 6 wickets. PNG were bowled out for 200. While chasing, West Indies lost 4 quick wickets, but Hope and Holder's unbeaten partnership of 143 runs for the 5th wicket led them to an easy victory.
In the next two matches, the Holder-led side outplayed Ireland by 52 runs and then the Netherlands by 54 runs via D/L method.
In the opening match of the Super Six stages played on 15th March, they lost to Afghanistan by 5 wickets. West Indies scored 197 for 8 in 50 overs with contributions from Marlon Samuels, Shai Hope and Jason Holder. Despite a good bowling effort, they lost the match by 5 wickets with 14 balls to spare.
In the second Super Six match played on 19th March 2018, Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to bat. Brendon Taylor scored a brilliant 138, with contributions from Solomon Mire 45, Sean Williams 34, Sikander Raza 22, and Chisoro helping hosts Zimbabwe post 289 runs. Holder led from the front, taking 4 wickets while giving away 35 runs.
Chasing 290, West Indies opener Evin Lewis scored 64 runs. Samuels and Hope steadied the innings and added 135 runs for the 3rd wicket. Despite losing 4 quick wickets, West Indies won the game by 4 wickets with 1 over to spare.
In a winner-take-all match against Scotland, West Indies got off to the worst possible start. losing the wickets of Gayle and Hope in the first 3 overs. Samuels and Lewis steadied the innings with a 121-run partnership for the 3rd wicket. From 123 for 2, they were finally bowled out for just 198 in 48.4 overs.
The West Indies began their defence with 3 quick wickets in the space of 7 overs. However, when the scorecard read 125 for 5 in 35.2, the chances were very bright for Scotland to pull off an upset but, unfortunately, rain began to pour down and the match was interrupted. The match was eventually called off, with Scotland 5 runs short of the D/L par score. Thus, West Indies were declared winners and became the first team to qualify for World Cup 2019.
Samuels (289 runs) and Lewis (287 runs) were the stars for the Caribbean nation in the ICC World Cup qualifiers while the likes of Gayle and Hope failed to shine.