Samuels Drops Semi Finals Birth

The Catch that dropped the Semi Finals Birth

West Indies cricketer Samuels dropped a valuable catch to help Guptil score a double hundred at WestpacTrust Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand. McCullum started well with a big hit and a four. But, it was Samuels who left the catch of Guptill when he was on zero. It was a direct catch that should have been caught. The history was repeated when Steve Waugh’s catch was left in a semi final match and the Australian team winning the match and also the World Cup in the year 1999. After the fall of McCullum both the New Zealand batsmen started to play some good shorts in the middle getting five to six runs an over, Holder made a mistake by not bringing his main bowler Taylor into attack when the second wicket of Williamson fell.

From the other end Guptil was going good and not taking any risk in the middle over. 

The catch which won the match for New Zealand

The depth over was the main issue with the West Indies bowlers in this World Cup as they lack in depth over bowlers who could control the innings. Bowlers like Naraine and Bravo would have been the correct choice for the depth over spells. They just went for more than 14 runs per over in the last 10 overs to help the team reach 393/6 in 50 overs. Guptil finished with 237 runs in 163 balls with 4 fours and 11 huge six. The main reason for the huge score was the drop catch of Samuels. But, Samuels when batting was dismissed by a super catch from Daniel Vettori. West Indies played a fighting game and scored 230 runs in 30.3 overs. It was like a T20 match was boundaries were coming easily. Now 237 runs is the highest individual score in World Cups and the second best after Rohit Sharma’s 264. Black Caps will be playing the South African team in the semi finals.