Oh the Windies!

I have been a West Indies cricket fan since I remember. In the 90s and even at the beginning of the last decade, I always used to support the Windies even when they played India with the Trinidadian Brian Charles Lara being my favorite player of all time. Crowning glory was when I visited Trinidad and Tobago a couple of years back and even got a small gift there of Lara celebrating after his epic 400 not out.

I have however stopped watching their matches over the last few years (occasionally I do like when Gayle hit Brett Lee out of the park in the 20-20 tournament) coz' of their pathetic performances and absence of any proper team. Another reason being I feel "ontara" hurt to see them lose!

Today though, I was tempted to watch their game because its the world cup and I hadn't seen most of their players . They started out in promising fashion but showed their penchant for collapsing , not once but twice! Then they bowled . Ah, what a pity that was!! A 6'3 inch bowler bowling spin( he was not bad though) and a 6'7 inch bowler bowling lollipops(slow medium bowling!). I think I have seen local bowlers bowl faster than him in the nets! All in all ,the team had 3 batsmen in Gayle, Darren Bravo and Dwayne Bravo and for some reason and they hid Pollard till the last minute . In the bowling department, they had 2 and a half bowlers in Roach, Benn and Bravo ( Bravo got injured mid way and hence the half!). The remaining attack seemed absolutely listless.

I must say a couple of words about Darren Bravo - Today was the first time I saw him bat. He is apparently a blood relative of Brian Lara and you can see the resemblance in the way he bats as well. A few crisp drives were a treat to the eye( The reason I like the highlights package!) Anyway, well played South Africa! AB's square drives were something else today.

All in all, I hope the Windies make the quarter finals somehow for their fans around the world, who are very desperate to see them perform!