Martin Guptill became the latest batsman to make Cricket World Cup history with an innings of 237 not out in a total of 393/6 which led unbeaten New Zealand to a 143-run win over the West Indies in Saturday’s lop-sided quarterfinal.
Guptill’s innings, compiled from 163 balls and including 11 sixes and 24 fours, was the highest by an individual in a World Cup match, surpassing the 215 that Chris Gayle amassed against Zimbabwe on February 24, and the second-highest in all one-day internationals after Rohit Sharma’s 264 for India in November last year.
It was the first double-century by a New Zealander in ODIs, beating the record high score of 189 he set himself, and made Guptill the first New Zealander to score centuries in consecutive World Cup innings after having made 105 against Bangladesh.
“I’m just incredibly proud of what happened today,” Guptill said. “I was just really proud to score that many runs and get the win as well.”
New Zealand will play South Africa in Auckland on Tuesday in a semifinal which will bring together some of world cricket’s most prodigious hitters — the Proteas’ A.B. de Villiers who has struck the fastest one-day international century and New Zealand’s Corey Anderson, from whom de Villiers took that record. There will also be Brendon McCullum, Kane Williamson and Guptill, Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla, all set to meet at Eden Park — a ground with the shortest boundaries in world cricket.
The Black Caps won the toss but lost captain and chief run-maker McCullum for 12, with West Indies captain Jason Holder taking a well-judged running catch after a mistimed drive off the bowling of Jerome Taylor. That setback produced groans in the capacity crowd, but Guptill more-than-picked-up the slack.
The West Indies received a boost ahead of the match when star batsman Gayle was ruled fit to play after struggling with a back injury. He moved freely and took a catch at cover to remove Williamson from Andre Russell’s bowling in the 16th over and another to dismiss Corey Anderson, also off Russell, in the 44th.
When Williamson went, New Zealand was 89-2 and with two of its best-performing batsmen back in the pavilion, but Guptill and Taylor soon established full control for the Black Caps.
Aside from Samuel’s dropped chance, the West Indies had another opportunity to dismiss Guptill when he was on 86. He skied a drive off Samuels towards Taylor at long on but the fielder was slow coming off the boundary and the ball fell at his feet.
After reaching a relatively conventional century from 111 balls, Guptill added another hundred runs from 41 deliveries in a blizzard of boundaries to all points of the Wellington Regional Stadium.
“He really took the game away from us and what was good about his innings was that he batted straight through,” Holder said.
“We could have had him out earlier. We had a couple of half chances that we probably could have taken. That’s cricket.”
It was a dismal day for West Indies bowlers, with the opening bowlers Taylor conceding 71 runs from seven overs and Holder 76 from eight, while Russell gave up 96 runs from his full quota of 10 overs.
The West Indies faced an imposing task of even getting close to New Zealand’s score, and though the score moved along at better than eight runs per over, the wickets fell at regular intervals and the innings ended on 250 in the 31st over.
Gayle dashed across to his half century from 26 balls including seven sixes. But when he was out for 61 from 33 balls at 120/5, bowled by Adam Milne who returned to the New Zealand team after a shoulder injury, the West Indies’ cause was lost.
Trent Boult took 4/44 to regain his place as the tournament’s leading wicket-taker with 19 while Guptill took two catches.
