Must-win match for West Indies against Australia
By IANSMonday, May 10, 2010
GROS ISLET - After inflicting crushing defeats on India and Sri Lanka, a fired-up Australia will be eying to round off their third and last Super Eights match against West Indies with a win in the World Twenty20 here Tuesday.
The Australians, after surviving a close shave against Bangladesh in the group stage have come back stronger, and their performance against India and Sri Lanka in the Super Eights stage has rung the alarm bells for the other teams.
Australia, who are yet to win this tournament, trampled India by 49 runs, and derailed Sri Lanka’s campaign’s by an embarrassing 81 run margin.
The two wins have put Australia on the edge of semi-finals and captain Michael Clarke minces no words when he declares they are focussed on winning the title.
“We want to win this tournament, since we haven’t performed as well as we’d like in the first two World Twenty20s,” Clarke said.
“We are here to be successful, so we’ve all been working really hard together. So far, so good.”
Australia’s pace battery - Mitchell Johnson, Dirk Nannes and Shaun Tait - has been decisive in their victories in Barbados and Clarke will be hoping for an encore Tuesday.
But the pitch here, as has been seen in the league matches, has been low and slow and would assist the slow bowlers and spinners and Australia need to come prepared for that.
The batting, too, has flourished for Australia with openers David Warner and Shane Watson leading the charge and amply supported by Michael Hussey and Clarke in the middle.
For West Indies to reach the last four, they need to beat Australia with a good net run rate and also keep an eye on the match between India and Sri Lanka.
The West Indies, who jolted India’s hope of reaching the last four stage Sunday, need to carry on their good work. A lot depends on their captain Chris Gayle who played a belligerent innings against India and was left agonisingly short of what would have been a well deserved century.
The team has the big hitters like Kieron Pollard, and Dwayne Bravo while Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and Ramnaresh Sarwan will provide solidity to the middle order.
