Sherfane Rutherford And Alzari Joseph Lead West Indies to Super 8 Berth With Win Over New Zealand

New Delhi: West Indies stay undefeated in the ongoing edition of T20 World Cup 2024 as the Caribbean team crushed New Zealand by 13 runs at the Brian Lara Cricket Stadium, on Thursday. Both the teams struggled to score runs on a difficult tack of Tarouba. This has pushed the Kane Williamson-led side to the brink of elimination, with only a miracle needed for them to go to the Super 8 stage.

New Zealand won the toss and elected to bowl first against the West Indies. In the first Innings, West Indies batters failed to capitalise the powerplay as the score stood at 58/6 after first 11 overs. A fighting and attacking innings from Sherfane Rutherford of 68 runs off 39 balls helped the West Indies to reach a respectable score of 149/10 after 20 overs, he also became the only batter to score a half century in the entire match. After the match, he was awarded with the player of the match award for his heroic knock to guide the West Indies team to a respectable total that turned out to be the difference in the second innings.

In reply, New Zealand failed to chase the target as the Openers Devon Conway and Finn Allen failed to give momentum in the powerplay. Devon Conway who made his return to international cricket in the tournament wasn’t able to make any impact with the bat. NZ were at 36/2 after the first six overs, Glenn Philips ended up being the highest scorer in the match for his side as he scored 40 runs off 33 deliveries, but his innings weren’t enough to cross the finish line as the Black Caps lost the match by 13 runs.

Alzari Joseph shined with the ball as he ended the match by clinching four wickets by giving just 16 runs. He clinched the wickets of the likes of Finn Allen, James Neesham and Glenn Phillips. He became the second bowler for the Caribbean team to clinch four wickets in a match after Akeal Hosein in T20 World Cup 2024.

With this 13-run victory, the Windies made it three wins out of three and secured their place in the Super 8. On the other hand, after back to back defeats, chances of New Zealand getting qualified for the Super 8 stage has become slimmer. The NZ team will take on Uganda and Papua New Guinea, they will look to secure victory in both the matches with the high margin as well to have a better chance at the qualification.