West Indies qualify for Super 8s, Nepal knocked out

Dipendra Singh Airee's half-century went in vain as West Indies cruised to a comfortable nine-wicket win over Nepal to secure their place in the Super 8s. Jason Holder led the way with a four-fer, and the batters put up a clinical display to overhaul Nepal's score of 133 for 8 at the Wankhede Stadium, on Sunday, to eliminate them from the tournament.

Put in to bat, Nepal never found the momentum in their innings. Opener Kushal Bhurtel was cleaned up in the opening over, and skipper Rohit Poudel was trapped legbefore on 5 soon. By the seventh over, Nepal were reduced to 23 for 4 before Airee began the resurrection in the company of the lower middle order. Matthew Forde, who bowled four overs on a trot, was especially impressive in not letting Nepal away.

In the company of Lokesh Bam and Gulshan Jha, Airee steadied the innings with two vital partnerships, even though they came at a slow clip. They gave the odd charge to the spinners, but the gear shifted only in the death, with Airee and Sompal Kami going after the pacers. In the 18th over, Kami cracked three successive boundaries off Holder, and Airee followed that up by smoking two sixes off Shamar Joseph in the next, the first of which brought up his half-century. With 44 runs picked off three overs, they found the acceleration they needed, but Holder returned to bowl an impressive last over, with his yorkers proving especially effective as he scalped two wickets.

In response, West Indies had little difficulty in the run chase even as the ball held up a bit on the surface, and shot-making was easy. Brandon King got going with a boundary through cover-point off the first ball. Without taking much risks, the West Indian openers were able to find at least one boundary each every over. It was only in the fifth over when they started to cut loose. King put away Kami for three fours and set the stage for the cruise.

Even as King departed in the last over of the powerplay, holing out to mid on and ending a 44-run opening stand, Nepal didn't threaten West Indies enough to seize the momentum in their favour. Shimron Hetmyer stubbed the threat of Sandeep Lamichhane and kept the boundaries coming, including stepping out against the leggie and depositing a six over long on. Hope too joined the act later, and smoked a couple of sixes of Lamichhane in the 15th over to bring up his half-century.

Brief Scores: Nepal 133/8 in 20 overs (Dipendra Singh Airee 58, Sompal Kami 26*; Jason Holder 4-27, Matthew Forde 1-10) lost to West Indies 134/1 in 15.2 overs (Shai Hope 61*, Shimron Hetmyer 46*) by 9 wickets.