Windies earn comprehensive win over UAE

Napier, March 15:

The West Indies eased to a six-wicket win over the United Arab Emirates here on Sunday to give themselves a strong chance of qualifying for the World Cup quarterfinals.

Despite threats of cyclone Pam looming around, the Windies opted to bowl out the Associate member team for 175 in 47.4 overs in the must-win game before chasing down the target in only 30.3 overs in their last Pool B match at the McLean Park.

Chasing a nominal target of 176, the two-time former World Champions suffered four hiccups but two half-centuries from Johnson Charles (55) and Jonathan Carter (50 not out) sealed the deal for them.

Eventually an unbeaten 58-run fifth-wicket partnership between Carter, who scored his maiden One-Day International (ODI) fifty, and wicketkeeper-batsman Denesh Ramdin (33 not out) saw their team home. UAE pacers Manjula Guruge (2/40) and Amjad Javed (2/29) picked two wickets each.

Earlier, pace spearhead Jerome Taylor (3/36) and Windies captain Jason Holder (4/27) were too hot to handle for UAE as they easily skittled out the top order to make the minnows reel at 46/6 in the 14th over with none of the top-6 batsmen able to get into double digits.

However, Amjad Javed (56) and Nasir Aziz (60) struck their maiden ODI half-centuries to strike a significant 107-run seventh-wicket partnership to take UAE past the 150-run mark.

But once the stand was broken, the West Indies bowlers did not find it difficult to run through the lower order with all-rounder Andre Russell (2/20) also taking two wickets as Holder picked up the third four-wicket haul of his career.

Brief scores: UAE 175 all out in 47.4 overs (Nasir Aziz 60, Amjad Javed 56; Jason Holder 4/27, Jerome Taylor 3/36) lost to West Indies 176/4 in 30.3 overs (Johnson Charles 55, Jonathan Carter 50 not out; Amjad Javed 2/29, Manjula Guruge 2/40). (IANS)