Gayle powers West Indies to a win with his 215 runs innings - The 15th match of the World Cup 2015 was played between West Indies and Zimbabwe. The West Indians were coming in form lately after having lost their 1st encounter against Ireland on the other hand Zimbabwe were running on top form giving problems to all the countries which included South Africa. It was one of the most sought after match as both the teams were considered equals. No one was considered as favorites before this match. Winning the toss West Indies decided to bat first in this match.
Batting first Dwayne Smith failed once again to impress with the bat as he lost his wicket after playing 2 balls and was unable to score a single run. Zimbabwe had a strong start and made sure that dangerous Chris Gayle didn’t run away with the bat. Gayle looked determined today and was easily rotating strike. The team had a pretty slow but steady start. West Indies completed their 50 runs in 12th over while reached 100 runs in 24th over. Soon the Gayle factor started to play as run rate kept on increasing. Gayle completed his 50 in 51 balls while Marlon Samuels completed his half century in 95 balls. Gayle struck hard and scored his century in 105 balls. Zimbabwe was successful in taking Gayle’s wicket in the last ball of innings when he had scored 215 runs off 147 balls. Samuels too scored 133 runs as West Indies finished the innings at 372 for 2 in 50 overs.
Zimbabwe’s start to the chase was disastrous as they lost 3 wickets at a score of 46 runs. Sikandar Raza was the top scorer in the top order scoring 26 runs. Soon rain hit the game and the innings was reduced to 48 overs with target being reduced to 363. Brendan Taylor and Sean Williams came up with a partnership which was broken in the 21st over when Taylor lost his wicket after scoring 37 runs. Williams continued and scored 76 runs while Craig Ervine scored 52 runs. The required rate was high and in order to get some quick runs team lost many wickets and at the end were able to score only 289 runs in 44.3 overs. With this West Indies won their 2nd match in Pool B and Chris Gayle was named as the man of the match.