West Indies review: Place in quarters fails to mask loose ends

Truth be told, not many would have placed bets on West Indies to make it to the knockouts of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. The tour of India was abandoned midway, they lost the ODI series to South Africa in January, Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard were axed, and with Darren Bravo injured early in the tournament, the Caribbean team had its backs to the wall. But the fact that they made it to the final eight with what seemed like a second-string side was an achievement in itself.

That being said, there continues to exist turmoil both on and off the field. They showed glimpses of brilliance in a couple of games, but all that completely fell apart in the quarter-final against New Zealand, in which the latter were totally dominant. It's not that they didn't have quality players, but they just didn't click. West Indies dished out pretty much what was expected of them.

Record in World Cup: Played 7, Won 3, Lost 4

High Point

West Indies registered back-to-back wins against Pakistan and Zimbabwe. Having lost the opener against Ireland, it was important for them to win the Pakistan game to get their World Cup campaign back on track - which they did with a big 150-run victory. Lendl Simmons' half-century and Andre Russell's 13-ball 42 got West Indies to their second consecutive 300-plus total batting first, after which Russell and Jerome Taylor shared six wickets to bundle Pakistan out for 160. What more? They even made India sweat really hard, but eventually came out second best.

In the next match, Chris Gayle tore the Zimbabwe bowling apart and his record-shattering 215 gave West Indies a 72-run win via D/L. During his innings, Gayle equalled the record of most sixes hit in ODIs. He hit 16 sixes in the innings, tied with Rohit Sharma and AB de Villiers.

Low Point

The defeat to Ireland was a major setback for the Caribbean side. West Indies, batting first put up 304 runs on the board - Lendl Simmons hit a century and Darren Sammy contributed with 89. Ireland gunned down the target with almost four overs to spare, Paul Stirling's 92, Ed Joyce's 84 and Niall O'Brien's 79 made the difference.

Captaincy Verdict

Trusted with the captaincy of a troubled side, Jason Holder was obviously a surprise choice for the post, but the 23-year-old led from the front, with both bat and bowl. He picked up nine wickets at an economy of 6.05 and scored 155 runs at an average of 51.66. In a quest for a place in the quarter-final, Holder's spell of 4 for 27 against the UAE was extremely handy in restricting them to a chasable total, though he did take a pounding at the hands of de Villiers conceding over 100 runs.

In the same match, Holder scored his maiden half-century and followed it with another one against India. Positioned at 85 for 7, Holder strung in useful partnerships with the lower-order and scored a 64-ball 57, which allowed West Indies to stretch their total to 182.

With just 21 ODIs to his name before being assigned captaincy, Holder had shown commendable leadership skills in such short time. His field placements were usually good, attacking while defending a small total.

Most Valuable Performer

Taylor with 17 wickets was the stand out bowler for the West Indies. His opening spells against Pakistan and India produced turned out to be a fine exhibition of swing bowling. He dismissed three Pakistan top-order batsmen for duck in Christchurch and removed the Indian openers early in a small chase at Perth.

He picked up a three-wicket haul in five out of the seven matches he played and his economy of 5.70 was much lower as compared to the rest of his fellow bowlers. It was his camaraderie with skipper Holder against the UAE, which dismissed them for a moderate total and allowed West Indies a place in the final eight.

Major Disappointment

Despite a century against Zimbabwe, Marlon Samuels' overall performance remained a big letdown for the West Indies. In the absence of experienced campaigners in Pollard and Bravo, Samuels needed to take more responsibility and show and bit of maturity in his batting. But his inability to come good in crunch situations hurt his team big time. 230 runs from seven matches to go with just three wickets is simply unacceptable from someone who's been on the scene for almost 15 years.

Samuels dropping Martin Guptill in the quarter-final made matters worse for him and his side. The New Zealand opener was dropped in the first over of the match at square-leg, after which he went on to score an unbeaten 237 which was more than enough to boot West Indies out of the tournament.

Dwayne Smith, known for his brutal hitting, could contribute all of 93 runs from six matches. In crunch games, such as the one against New Zealand in the quarters, his early dismissal had a lot of impact on the remaining batsmen succumbing to pressure in pursuit of a daunting total. Smith struggled with his shots and instead looked to nudge and dab for most part of his innings.

Verdict

Despite limping to the quarters, West Indies' weakness was exposed in the World Cup. After showing encouraging signs in the first-half of the league stage, West Indies squandered the advantage as they went on to face bigger and better teams in the tournament.

Their only major win came against Pakistan, where they mauled the opposition by 150 runs and facile wins over Zimbabwe and UAE helped their passage to the knockouts. But their inadequacy to come good against top sides such as India and South Africa shows they still have a lot of homework to do. For many, West Indies finishing in the top eight may have been a pleasant surprise, but there were far too many loose ends which need to be worked upon as soon as possible.