Windies, Ireland stay in hunt for Super 12s

Hobart: Fast bowling duo of Alzarri Joseph and Jason Holder shared seven wickets between themselves as two-time champions West Indies defeated Zimbabwe by 31 runs in a must-win Group B match in the first round of ICC Men's T20 World Cup at Bellerive Oval on Wednesday to stay alive in the pursuit of making the Super 12 stage.

After making 153/7 in their 20 overs, West Indies didn't have a good start to their defence as Zimbabwe's stand-in captain Regis Chakabva hit three fours in an 18-run opening over off Kyle Mayers. Joseph, who took career-best figures of 4/14, struck with his second ball as Chakabva chopped on to his stumps.

Wesley Madhevere hit two fours and a six in his 19-ball 27, but was losing partners from other end as Joseph shattered Tony Munyonga's stumps with a pacyyorker while Obed McCoy had Sean Williams chasing a drive and nicking behind to keeper. Holder, who took 3/12, got Madhevere out when he sliced to backward point timing his catch to perfection.

The turning point of the match came when an in-form SikandarRaza mistimed his slap over the off-side to mid-off moving to his left off Odean Smith in the eighth over. From there, despite some resistance from Ryan Burl (17) and Luke Jongwe (29), Zimbabwe crashed to 122 all out in 18.2 overs, giving the West Indies a much-needed victory in the tournament, as seen from the jubilant celebrations after the win was confirmed in their favour.

Earlier in another Group B match, Curtis Campher and George Dockrell shared an unbeaten 119-run stand for the fifth wicket in Ireland's successful chase of 177 to seal a come-from-behind six-wicket win over Scotland.

After opener Michael Jones hit a magnificent 86 off 55 balls to carry Scotland to a massive 176/5, the bowlers came into act by reducing Ireland to 61/4 in 9.3 overs and victory looked improbable with every minute.

That's when Campher (72 not out off 37 balls) and Dockrell (39 not out off 27 balls) joined forces to shock Scotland and get a win out of nowhere for Ireland with a brilliant partnership in just 9.3 overs and keep them in the reckoning for a Super 12 spot.

The duo ran excellently hard between the wickets, converted their ones into twos, twos into threes and kept the boundaries coming consistently from the 11th over onwards and yielded runs in double figures till Campher finished off the chase with a hat-trick of fours, last of which was a crisp square drive past point and roared in delight over getting a thrilling win for Ireland.

When the drinks break was taken, Ireland had new batters in Campher and Dockrell with 116 runs still needed in 63 deliveries. After Dockrell took a boundary each off Wheal and Greaves, Campher joined the party by slog-sweeping Watt for six in an 18-run 13th over which also had four wides.

Campher frequently targeted the short square dimensions of the stadium, as seven of his nine boundaries came from square of the wicket regions on both sides, with Dockrell supporting him well. Campher also used the crease well, heaving, scooping, cutting and slicing for boundaries for his first T20I fifty coming at a strike-rate of 225 and led Ireland to their highest ever successful run-chase in T20 World Cups with an over to spare.

Brief Scores:

West Indies 153/7 in 20 overs (Johnson Charles 45, Rovman Powell 28; SikandarRaza 3/19, Blessing Muzarabani 2/38) beat Zimbabwe 122 all out in 18.2 overs (Luke Jongwe 29, Wesley Madhevere 27; Alzarri Joseph 4/16, Jason Holder 3/12) by 31 runs.

Scotland 176/5 in 20 overs (Michael Jones 86, Richie Berrington 37; Curtis Campher 2/9, Mark Adair 1/23) lost to Ireland 180/4 in 19 overs (Curtis Campher 72 not out, George Dockrell 39 not out; Michael Leask 1/16, Brad Wheal 1/25) by six wickets.