ICC Champions Trophy 2013: West Indies batting has to rise to the occasion if they are to beat South Africa

Tags: Nishad Pai Vaidya, West Indies, ICC Champions Trophy 2013, Darren Sammy, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, South Africa vs West Indies, Marlon Samuels, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Kemar Roach
Series: ICC Champions Trophy 2013 , Match: South Africa vs West Indies

Darren Sammy's late surge against wasn't good enough as the West Indies were thrashed by eight wickets by India © Getty Images

By Nishad Pai Vaidya

West Indies face a tough battle against  for a berth in the semi-final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2013. It is a team full of natural entertainers and game-changers, but for some reason they fail to get their act together in One-Day Internationals (ODIs). Their victory at the ICC World T20 2012 highlighted their dangerous potential, but can they sustain it in a 50-over affair?

In their two games at the Champions Trophy so far, it is the West Indies batting that has disappointed and haven’t done their job clinically. Chasing a small target of 171 against Pakistan, West Indies made heavy weather of the run-chase and got home with only two wickets in hand. Against India, they got off to a good start with Johnson Charles going strong. A late surge from Darren Sammy wasn’t enough for them as they collapsed — a regular feature in West Indies cricket in recent times.

Here are the statistics of the West Indies batsmen in ODIs since the end of the 2011 World Cup:

Player	M	R	Ave	100s	50s	SR	HS
Kieron Pollard	38	1078	33.68	3	3	88.65	119
Marlon Samuels	37	973	31.38	2	4	71.07	126
Darren Bravo	35	944	32.55	1	6	66.80	100*
Lendl Simmons	23	844	38.36	1	8	74.88	122
Darren Sammy	40	609	24.36	0	3	102.35	84
Andre Russell	31	608	32.00	0	3	122.82	92*
Dwayne Bravo	29	529	21.16	0	3	74.40	77
Kieran Powell	17	481	28.29	0	3	77.95	83
Johnson Charles	13	451	34.69	2	1	85.90	130
Chris Gayle	16	415	27.66	1	2	87.55	125
Ramnaresh Sarwan	15	404	36.72	1	3	67.55	120*
Denesh Ramdin	17	241	26.77	0	1	70.26	96

The intriguing detail is that none of the West Indies batsmen have averaged over 40 in the last two years. With an average of 38.36, Lendl Simmons leads the list and he isn’t even part of the squad anymore. Most of the batsmen average in the mid-30s and that isn’t a good sign for a one-day unit with such copious potential.

Kieron Pollard — someone who bats in the middle-order is their highest run-scorer and has recorded three hundreds in the last two years. While one might say that the hard-hitter has shown great maturity in ODIs, this reflects the fact that the top-order is wobbly and the middle has to do the clean-up job. The top-order batsmen are lagging behind on the run tally and haven’t performed as well as they would have liked.