Scorecard:
West Indies: 105 all out (19 overs)
(Sarwan 26 off 31 balls, Chanderpaul 24 off 18 balls, Smith 3 for 20, D Hussey 2 for 3, Johnson 2 for 22)
Australia: 109 for 4 (16.2 overs)
(Haddin 42 off 46 balls, Warner 25 off 12 balls, Perera 2 for 19)
West Indies elected to bat in their crucial match. A Prime West Indian strategy is to elect to bat and pray for Gayle to strike. This was same when Lara was there, the only difference being that the actors have changed but the plot is the same – Lara has been substituted by Gayle as the saviour. Well, this is one play which is difficult to reenact all the time. Today was no different. Gayle hit a 4 on the first ball he faced (one being wide) and was out the next! And the script ended here. Now it was upto the actors to come up with dialogues and none was capable enough. To their credit Chanderpaul and Sarwan batted for some time before tossing everything aside to enjoy proceedings from the pavillion. David Hussey took 2 wickets for 3 runs and Smith scalped 3!
West Indians had already given up even before Australia came to bat. Australia opener Warner smashed a few runs to send off any remaining spectators who had the heart to stay behind in the hope of a miracle. Soon, Haddin and Clarke took over to complete the formalities. The result, Australia and Sri Lanka went through to the Semi Finals from this group.
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