World Cup 2015 QF 4 West Indies v New Zealand; Guptill's 237 sinks Windies

World Cup 2015 QF 4 West Indies v New Zealand; Guptill’s 237 sinks Windies: West Indies and New Zealand met in the 4th QF of the 2015 World Cup at Wellington. The fans were expecting a wonderfully exciting match and that is what they got. Read on to know more about the match.

New Zealand batted first after winning the toss on a beauty of a batting pitch at the Westpac stadium.

There were no changes made in the New Zealand team, while Gayle came in for Smith in the West Indian line-up. What West Indies didn’t saw coming was the storm that was about to hit them. Brendon McCullum was out for 12 and West Indies rejoiced at picking the most important batsman of the side. Then Guptill and Williamson added 62 runs for the 2nd wicket. Guptill was looking in good touch, playing well and hitting balls with ease. After Williamson fell on 89, Ross Taylor joined Guptill and the dam that is called Guptill broke. These 2 added 143 runs with Ross Taylor scoring 42 runs.

But the Kiwi innings was about the 237* scored by Martin Guptill. It was the 1st double century by a Kiwi batsman, second in the World Cup history; highest score in the World Cup, 4th highest in List A cricket, 2nd highest ODI score ever. Guptill broke or make all these records while hitting 24 fours and 11 sixes in his innings. He single handedly destroyed the hopes of every West Indian fan who were dreaming of a semi-final qualification.

Guptill’s 237 was filled with 11 massive sixes, 2 of which went out of the Wellington ground. He did not miss a single chance of hitting a boundary and celebrated like he should have after taking New Zealand to 393/6 in 50 overs. This was the highest score in any knockout match ever in World Cup.

West Indies were never in chance anywhere with their form in the World Cup. They needed Chris Gayle to fire and he did fire, for a little while. He was clearly unfit to play but West Indies needed him and he played. Gayle scored a brilliant 61 off just 33 balls with 8 sixes and 2 fours. He hit Vettori for 21 runs in an over. On the other end, Trent Boult was bowling like a bolt of lightning, picking wickets at will. He bowled 10 overs on a trot picking 4/44. He dismissed Johnston Charles, Lendl Simmons, Marlon Samuels and Denesh Ramdin. His effective bowling meant that Gayle’s counter attack at the other end was nullified.

Adam Milne counted for Chris Gayle, who lost his off stump trying to hit across the line and that was it for Windies. Next came Sammy who hit some lusty blows and so did Andre Russell and Jason Holder. But in the end the 393/6 was too much for the West Indies who ran out of batsman well before the 35th over. Though Jason Holder tried to lower the deficit somewhat making 42 runs with 2 sixes and 5 fours.

Martin Guptill was given the Man of the Match for his record making 237*.

New Zealand will now play South Africa in the first SF at Auckland on 24th March 2015.

Brief Scores:

New Zealand 393/6 (M Guptill 237*,R Taylor 42; J Taylor 3/71) defeated West Indies 250 30.3 overs (C Gayle 61, J Holder 42; T Boult 4/44) by 143 runs.

Records and Trivia:

# Chris Gayle 26* SIXES this WC, the most 6s by anyone in a single WC – he has hit 36* sixes in WC history, joint most with AB de Villiers.

# Fewest innings to maiden double-century in ODIs; 103 innings, Martin Guptill and Rohit Sharma each.

# Martin Guptill hits the 6th double-century of ODI history – first by a NZ batsman – first ever in any knockouts.

# The first ever WC which saw 400 SIXES.

# 237* is 4th highest score in List A cricket.

# Guptill broke his own record for highest score for New Zealand. Previous best was 189 vs England.

# 393/6 is the highest score in World Cup knockout matches.