As It Happened: New Zealand vs West Indies, 4th Quarter-Final Match in Wellington
Live cricket score and ball-by-ball commentary of the 4th World Cup quarter-final match between New Zealand and West Indies at the Westpac Stadium, Wellington on Saturday.
Black Caps opener Martin Guptill's 237 not out, the highest individual score at a World Cup, was the cornerstone of an imposing total of 393 for six made after New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum won the toss. Catch all the highlights of the match here: (SCORECARD | SCHEDULE)
West Indies were never in the hunt with the bat and their slim hopes of victory evaporated when the big-hitting Chris Gayle fell for a typically quickfire 61.
Left-arm paceman Trent Boult, the tournament's leading wicket-taker, took four for 44 as the West Indies were dismissed for 250 in 30.3 overs.
New Zealand will now play South Africa in the first semi-final in Auckland on Tuesday.
The second semi-final sees fellow co-hosts Australia face defending champions India in Sydney on Thursday, with the final in Melbourne on March 29.
Live Score - New Zealand vs West Indies
That's all from our side. Hope you guys enjoyed the coverage. Join us on the 24th of March at 0600 IST for the first semi-final to be played between New Zealand and South Africa at Auckland. Goodbye, till then!
New Zealand skipper, BRENDON MCCULLUM, says that the innings he witnessed today was a sublime one. A pure class innings by Martin Guptill! Adds, they would continue in the same manner, attacking cricket! That's the brand of cricket they like to play. Also says that they wanted to make a statement, in all a perfect team performance it was today. The crowd has been great and the support has been tremendous. Dan(Vettori) has been a great player for them. Also says it is pretty hard to compare this team to the previous legends New Zealand have produced in the past.
The West Indies skipper, JASON HOLDER says that it was difficult to contain the batsmen. They didn't hit the yorkers well today. Adds, it's being a challenge for him and he has learnt a lot from this tournament. Also says, they need to sit and assess what went wrong and make changes to their game. He'll like to keep leading the West Indies in days ahead. Ends up thanking the supporters!
The Man of the Match goes to MARTIN GUPTILL for his knock of 237! He says that they had a couple of good partnerships in the innings. The partnership with Taylor was a crucial one. Says that the crowd was incredible and thanks the crowd for their support. Also adds that he got value for his shots which he played today.
During the run chase, the West Indies lost a few early wickets as Boult got 4 wickets early on in the innings. He bowled 10 overs on the trot! Chris Gayle got a quickfire fifty but he failed to get a big one. Rest of the batsmen along with the skipper, Jason Holder showed some fight and scored at a quick rate but they kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. They were bowled out for 250 in 30 overs itself. Had they played with some caution there was a possibility of getting closer to the target. Anyways, this is Cricket, there's no place for ifs and buts here. The team which played well went on to win it. It will be New Zealand who'll take on South Africa in the first semi-final. The second one will be Australia-India in the second one. Four of the best teams have made it through to the semi-finals, indeed!
So, it's going to be the Kiwis who'll be the fourth team to enter the Semi-finals. It was New Zealand all the way today. Winning the toss, McCullum decided to bat first. He got out cheaply, but later on Martin Guptill played a blinder and became only the fifth man in history of ODI cricket to score a double hundred! He scored an unbeaten 237 and that knock has indeed helped the Kiwis to go through to the next stage!
OUT! That is it! Holder is the last man out. Flighted delivery around off, Holder chips this one straight to the fielder at long off. Corey Anderson makes no mistake and takes a safe catch. NEW ZELAND BEAT WEST INDIES BY 143 RUNS!
Yorker around off, driven through covers.
Floated outside off, played to the fielder at covers.
Batting Powerplay taken!