HARARE, Zimbabwe, CMC – Two-time champions West Indies will miss the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup for the first time.
The side, led by Shai Hope and coached by former captain Darren Sammy, limped out of contention for a place in CWC 2023 India with another indifferent performance that ended in a seven-wicket defeat against Scotland in the qualifying tournament yesterday in Zimbabwe.
West Indies were bundled out for 181 in 43.5 overs after they were sent in to bat in the Super Six contest at the Harare Sports Club with all-rounder Brandon McMullen taking three for 32 from nine overs to undermine their batting.
Jason Holder hit the top score of 45 and Romario Shepherd made 36 and they shared 77 for sixth wicket to bring some respectability to the batting, after the Caribbean side slumped to 81 for six in the 21st over.
Holder and Shepherd fell in successive overs, and they were two of the four wickets that fell for 23 runs in the span of 44 balls to leave West Indies needing a miracle in the field to collect their first points in this stage of the tournament.
There was another average performance in the field from the Caribbean side, and opener Matthew Cross with an unbeaten 74 and McMullen with 69 that made him a shoo-in for the Player-of-the-Match award, enabled Scotland to successfully chase the target with ease.
“To be honest, there is not one thing that I can put my finger on about our performance, but we definitely need to look at all the areas,” Hope said in the post-play TV interview. “We certainly have let ourselves down here in this entire tournament, but we need to look at the way we start our innings, and definitely the fielding.
“We knew that the conditions would definitely be in the bowlers’ favour, and the toss is always crucial here. We see that every single captain wins the toss and elected to field first, so we just needed to find ways to negate that early morning movement. Again, we can’t really look at the past, we gotta look at ways and move forward and get better.”
West Indies have no points in the Super Six stage and cannot overhaul Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, who have six points each from their three fixtures.
The win for Scotland moves them to four points, and they remain in contention with matches remaining against Zimbabwe and the Netherlands.
The top two teams in the Super Six table qualify for the World Cup, which will be staged in India from October 5 to November 19.
West Indies ended the first Power Play on 43 for four and vindicated the decision of the Scottish to field.
Johnson Charles and Shamarh Brooks fell without scoring and Brandon King for 22 in each of McMullen’s first three overs before Chris Sole bowled left-hander Kyle Mayers for five in seventh over.
At the halfway mark, West Indies were 102 for six after Hope and his predecessor Nicholas Pooran led a brief recovery to take them past 50.
Hope was caught behind for 13 off pacer Safyaan Sharif in the 13th over, and Pooran was caught at deep mid-wicket off Mark Watt for 21 in the 21st over before the Caribbean side reached 100.
Holder and Shepherd carried West Indies past 100, but once they were removed, there was token resistance from the rest of the batting.
Holder lifted the mood when he got opener Christopher McBride caught at mid-wicket with the first ball of the run chase.
This failed to inspire the Caribbean side, and they could not make any deep inroads into the Scotland batting once McMullen and Cross took control, smartly rotating the strike and quickly punishing anything loose in a 125-run, second wicket stand.
Shepherd got McMullen caught at long-on with 57 needed, and left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein got George Munsey caught at deep point for 18 with 20 needed, but Scotland captain Richard Berrington joined Cross to seal Scotland’s first ODI victory against West Indies.
