PALLEKELE, Sri Lanka: West Indies knocked New Zealand out of the World Twenty20 in a dramatic Super Over yesterday after their group one match finished in a tie.
Both teams were locked at 139 after 40 overs at Pallekele stadium, sending the match to the tense Super Over decider. New Zealand scored a challenging 17 off their six balls with Ross Taylor hitting a six off Marlon Samuels.
But West Indies reached the target with a ball to spare as Samuels smashed the winning six off Tim Southee to keep his team in contention for a semi-final place.
The breathless finish came after Southee (3-21) and Doug Bracewell (3-31) restricted the West Indian innings to 139 in 19.3 overs, before Taylor’s unbeaten 62 kept New Zealand in with a chance for an upset win. With New Zealand needing 14 off the last over, Taylor hit a six off the fourth delivery bowled by Samuels but managed just a single on the penultimate ball to leave his team two short of victory.
Doug Bracewell hit the final delivery but was run out while taking a second run, as the West Indian players celebrated jubilantly. Sunil Narine took 3-20 off his four overs to keep New Zealand in check. Taylor hit three sixes and as many fours off 40 balls.
Earlier, Southee and Bracewell rocked the West Indian batting after Darren Sammy won the toss and batted. Chris Gayle top-scored with a fluent 30 while Kieron Pollard (28) and Samuels (24) also chipped in with useful contributions, but none of the batsmen could capitalise on their good starts. AFP
