West Indies were knocked out by Pakistan in the quarter-final. Nobody ws surprised though. The team that had not beaten any test team (except Bangladesh) in lasst two years, failed to repeat the same in World Cup 2011 and returned home, with a consolatory quarter-final appearance.
West Indies had not won a single match against test playing nations (barring the minnow Bangladesh). To add to their woes they had faced turmoil in player’s rank. As a result Sammy was trusted with the captainship in World Cup, when his own position in the team was questionable.
World Cup 2011 Match Results of West Indies
Gayle, Sarwan, Chanderpaul failed to display the old magic. After their crushing defeat in first match against South Africa, Sammy accepted that a motivating speech by Gayle helped the team to perform better. Luckily, the three minnows came on the way and they walloped all with ease. But, they failed to go passt England and India. Still, their performance in the Group stage did give some hope to cricket fans, and people considered them a better fit for the elite quarter-final list than Bangladesh, who has defeated a test playing nation, England during Group matches.
The quarter-final match was played against Pakistan, the Group A topper and a team whose past 2 years were very matched by Carribean’s past. Yet, when it came to performance, probably their was a mismatch. They suffered their worst World Cup defeat. Pakistan scored their biggest World Cup win.
The Pollards, Sammys, Gayles and Roachs failed to breach the Pakistani batting or bowling. The loss was speculated. But the drubbing was shocking even for the worst critique of West Indies team. Bangladesh could have been better match for Pakistan, that is what people could say in the end, when West Indies team started packing for return flight to the calm sea shore of their Carribeans.
Hopefully, nobody will pelt stones there when they land.
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