The Cricket blog

West Indies defeat Australia..

The West indians proved their mettle for once by winning the match against the world champions australia in a see-saw battle which saw the balance swinging from one side to the other. It all began with a wonderful spell of bowling by the west indians who managed to peg down the australians while accounting for half the side with the score reading 105-5. Australians are well known to comeback from situations like these, and their captain Mike hussey gave proof of the talent his side his built on. He clobbered a mighty 109 not-out in a display of some magnificent batting along with wicketkeeper batsmen, haddin. Both of them compiled the runs in style from midway to the end of their innings to end australia at a respectable 272 in their 50 overs. West indies needed to win this match to reach the finals and they reflected exactly that attitude when they came to open the bat. Even though they were reduced to 42-2 in a relatively slow start early on, they came up wit a match winning partnership between the legendary lara and explosive gayle whose innings dominated the second half of the game and pounded the australians to bring the game to a 239-2 in 40 overs. THey were particularly severe on Stuart clarke who probably would like to forget the game after the 87 runs scored off his 7 overs. Gayle was the more explosive one and during his innings hit 3 magnificent sixes, while lara mastered placement to bring boundaries at regular intervals. In the end when lara was dismissed at the score reading 240-2 at the 40th over, west indies had a scare when they lost 3-4 quick wickets when the batsmen tried to rush things through. It seemed like a collapse until Baugh and bravo prevailed with a few boundaries and a mightly six to bring the game to a conclusion. The point has been made.Australia, (though without Mcgrath and ponting) can be beaten.While west indies are through to the final, India have a tough ask to win both thier matches to qualify for the finals. The australian defeat would have brought them some solace, but their own performance can bring some respectability to where they stand in the tournament. Only time will tell.