They may want to win this one, you know. Their record against, whether at home or in New Zealand against New Zealand doesn’t really inspire a lot of confidence anyway. That being told, the famous West Indies Cricket team, famous often for the barrage of mistakes they do and commit so often in a silly manner ought to know that they are far more capable than evident at present. Anyone with an iota of understanding the cricket quality that was put out avidly on display as seen recently in the T20I series in the BlackCaps land would say that the contests could so easily have been won by the WIndies side. They did begin on a strong note only to lose momentum, their woes exacerbated much worse by the combination of thoughtless batting, the inability to keep runs in check and often giving up wickets when a lot could have been achieved in staying at one end. However, that is not how cricket works, Shai Hope, captain of the T20I set up and the soccer of a fantastic and gritty fifty in the Auckland series opener would know. The Windies tend to give up their focus or their hold on concentration that does lead to results provided when it is held onto for long periods of time. This, precisely, the sad old fan of Caribbean cricket (author included), hasn’t been West Indies’ greatest strength. Isn’t it? They have lost out a lot than they have won.
Even as the West Indies haven’t yet won a proper one day series and on successive or repeat occasion in the past half a decade where it comes to one day games against the BlackCaps, the history does serve up an anomaly of sorts. So how is that and are you surprised about it at all?
Interestingly, of the 68 ODIs that the West Indies men’s team has played versus the BlackCaps, 30 have been won by the team hosting the Hope-led army of talented Caribbean cricketers. That’s it. On the other hand, the West Indians have won one more game than their NZ counterparts; in comparison to New Zealand’s 30 ODI wins, the West Indies have won 31 games.
Tomorrow, the series begins and now it’s just a few hours ago. Doing simple schoolboy math in reference to the above suggests that should the West Indies manage to lose that ODI as well, the one that’s poised to take place at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval, the overall record in terms of head-to-head games won would tilt in NZ’s favour.
How? NZ then, should they win in the next few hours, will have won their 31nd game against the West Indies, who already have 31 victories.
The likes of Springer, Layne, Forde, Seales and the rest would combine for a fantastic bowling attack that will hopefully challenge the Kiwis. At least, that is going to be what Shai Hope and his team would hope for. Isn’t it? And if not, then well, in batters like Roston and Shai, there is hope that the team would march on to some commanding totals, given there’s this burst of ceaseless energy and application in names like Alick Athanaze. The talented left-hander is among the most important and impressive talents to have emerged on the forefront of taking up batting duties for the side. Son of Dominica, player for the West Indies and a talent that did hold onto his own as seen at the Delhi Test recently against India and someone we seem to have forgotten excelled so very well in the Under-19 2018 stage.
For starters, is there a Shai Hope ODI century loading? Remember, he needs one more to draw level with that man called Brian Charles Lara and with 3 more, eventually, which he will get to at some stage, he will become the scorer of most ODI tons, ever for the idea that fills the heart with sweetness and smile. The idea that’s the hope that West Indies cricket is very much alive and hasn’t yet, become a lost cause, administrative challenges and weird selection strategies notwithstanding.
