5 elements that make West Indies a threatening opposition in the World Cup
The era of dominance of the West Indies cricket team is long over. Once a strong team that scaled great heights during the time of former legends like Viv Richards, Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, cricket in the Caribbean has been on the path of deterioration for long.It was at the peak of their power’s during the 80s and the early 90s that West Indies were truly regarded as a dominant power in World Cricket. On one hand, while their bowling was penetrating and accurate, their batsmen played in a spirited and carefree manner.The current Windies side is a shadow of the great batting orders of yore, but they do have in their ranks a quartet of hard-hitting batsmen who can upset a few more fancied teams in World Cup 2015. They might be lazy or a tad bit nonchalant as their key opponents identify them to be, but they still possess the flair that had propelled them to the legendary status their country’s cricketers had achieved.After their shocking loss to Ireland in their first World Cup match, the West Indies have demonstrated great fighting spirit. We take a look at what makes the West Indies a strong and competitive side in this edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup:
#1 Red-hot form of Marlon Samuels
In their recent outing in South Africa, the lads from the Caribbean didn't exactly create lasting memories, either in the Test matches or in the One Day series. Apart from that T20 series win, there wasn't much to take home from the African tour, except for the fine batting form of their top order batsman Marlon Nathaniel Samuels.
The 33-year-old Jamaican showed stubborn resistance to the imposing South Africans. In the T20 series triumph, he rendered useful support to Gayle in taking his side over the ropes on 2 ocassions out of three. In the Test matches, he made headlines after a quickfire 101 off 160 balls at Port Elizabeth.
He struck two valuable fifties in the ODI games, 68 being his top score, even as his side lost the ODI series by a convincing margin of 4-1. Marlon Samuels attacked from the word go and didn't look to back down in front of the piercing pace of the threatening duo Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.
Samuels recently compiled his career best ODI score of 133 vs Zimbabwe in an important Pool B game for West Indies, apart from scripting the highest ODI partnership with Chris Gayle. Samuels has had come to the crease at very early stages of the Windies innings in recent times, but this might augur well for the Jamaican.