West Indies made it to the quarter-finals of the 2015 edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup following a routine victory over the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Leaving it for the last game of the group stage they also had to wait on the result of the Pakistan and Ireland game before they were sure that they were advancing beyond the group stages.
The Caribbean side entered the match knowing they had to win to give themselves a chance of claiming one of the two remaining quarterfinals spots. They had to do so with out their most dangerous batsman, Chris Gayle, who was not passed fit to play. It was always going to be interesting although they were playing against the UAE who had not won a match in the tournament. Rain was a main factor an it was said that rain was at a high chance, which meant the West Indies had to do business urgently.
Captain Jason Holder won the toss and elected to bowl. The plan was clearly to bowl out the non-Test playing nation quickly and chase the runs in a hurry. Three wickets from sixteen deliveries was a dream start for Holder with weather in consideration.
The West Indies captain and Jerome Taylor seemed as though they were going to bowl out the UAE on their own when the both took five wickets for less than 30 runs. At this stage the UAE was not expected to make more than 100 runs.
However, Holder bowled his 10 overs claiming 4 wickets for 27 runs. Kemar Roach and Andre Russell came in and was bowling too many length balls they the UAE batsmen could not handle but managed not to give away their wickets.
Darren Sammy was brought on to try break a partnership between Amjad Javed and Nasir Aziz that was handling the pace of Russell and Sammy with no problems. Dwayne Smith and Marlon Samuels had a try also but neither was successful.
Taylor returned after a good first spell, bowling 7 overs taking 2 wickets for 32 runs. He was also brought on to try separate the pair, he too failed with his 8th over. Andre Russell was brought back after the two batsmen made a well played half centuries, but Russell remove Javed in his 5th over to break the 102 run stand.
The other four wickets went in a flash for some 22 runs to leave the UAE on 175 all out.
The West Indies now had to make sure they did not take longer than 36.2 overs to chase down the 175 in order to take the net run rate out of the reach of Ireland unless Pakistan and Ireland tied at the 30 over mark.
Johnson Charles who was brought in the squad for the injured Darren Bravo and made the eleven for this game due to the injured Chris Gayle, has not played international cricket for more than a year.
Young Charles has always performed well in tournaments and with such great form in the regional four day cricket, he had become a mentally stronger batsman with more strokes in his locker. Jonathan Carter was playing his second tournament for West Indies. Neither man showed themselves as such and took West Indies into the quarter-final without much incident.
Dwayne Smith and Johnson Charles were trying to get runs quickly but Smith was went back to the pavilion early making 15. Twenty runs later, Marlon Samuels followed him leaving the score at 2-53 but Charles found a solid partner in Carter who was choosing his shots wisely and ensured the West Indies did not crumble.
Charles went back to the changing room with a welcome half century, with West Indies well in sight of reaching their target in time despite the constant threat of rain. Andre Russell came but did not last long has he went with the score on 117-2 with 17.2 overs bowled.
Dinesh Ramdin came to join the comfortable looking Carter and both brought the West Indies home. Carter 55 not out and Ramdin 33 not out, was enough to give them a quarter-finals spot.
Elsewhere, Pakistan left it late in the tournament to play good cricket, as they beat Ireland impressively in a match that was expected to be a much closer contest.
Depite a century from opener William Porterfield the Irish only manage to get to 237 on what seemed like a very flat pitch. The Pakistan bowlers really bowled well to restrict the Irish batsmen to what is a modest total these days in One Day Internationals and to make it worse, on a wicket that was best for batting.
In reply the Pakistan opening pair was comfortable both getting to half centuries but with the score on 120 Ahmed Shehzad was the first of the four wicket for the Irish bowlers.
Sarfraz Ahmed made 101 not out to make sure Pakistan did not board the plane and instead, a spot in the quarter-finals. Ireland just did not make enough runs on what was a flat wicket and they were always behind once they did not get early wickets to put Pakistan under pressure.
Quarter-finals matchs up, India vs Bangladesh, New Zealand vs West Indies, South Africa vs Sri Lanka and Australia vs Pakistan.
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