Brian Lara desperately wants to hoist the World Cup trophy on April 28. Here's five reasons why we think he will do it.
1) Home Cookin'
The difference between the West Indies at home and away is striking. A team that struggles against Zimbabwe in Africa is the same team that will chase down a world record 418 to win a Test match against the mighty Aussies in the Caribbean. The distinction can be seen in their performances during the last year against India. India came to the Caribbean last year in top one day form, but left after being beaten 4-1 in the ODI series. In January of this year those same Indians, now struggling to find their form, comfortably dismissed the Windies 3-1 in India.
2) Opening Pair
Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul form the most successful West Indian one day opening partnership ever. Better than Greenidge-Haynes! Both Gayle and Chanderpaul are capable of demolishing any attack in the game.
3) The Prince from Port of Spain
Lara has twice captured the highest score in Test cricket and holds the top score in first class cricket. In addition, he is Test cricket's all time leading run scorer. The Windies captain has been much maligned in the past, especially here in the West Indies. He has not often received the repect that his immense talent deserves.
More recently, he has focused on molding the young West Indian batsmen. He is always quick to offer encouragement and defer praise to the likes of Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Marlon Samuels. This World Cup will be his swan song in ODIs and he will want to show his talent to the world one last time on cricket's grandest stage.
4) Allrounders abound
This West indian team is different from Windies teams that have played in recent World Cups, in that this team is built for one day cricket. All through the order there will be batsmen who can be counted on to bowl efficiently. Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith (if he plays) and even Ramnaresh Sarwan give captain Lara many options in the field. The Windies can choose to play only 2 specialist bowlers, although they will likely play three. Counting the brilliance of some players, notably Bravo and Smith, in the field and it's clear that allrounders abound all around in this Windies team.
5) Stunning Death Bowling
A little known fact is that since 2006 the West Indies have yielded, on average, the fewest runs in the last ten overs of an innings. The last ten overs or "death" of an innings are where huge totals are had as teams throw caution to the wind and try to pile up big scores. The West Indies have excelled at bowling in these conditions over the past year. According to Cricinfo, since 2006 the West Indies have yielded 5.85 runs per over in the last ten overs of an innings, while the next best team, England, yielded 6.21 runs. Meanwhile, favourites Australia were second to last at 6.64 runs an over. The West Indies also took wickets at the death more frequently than any other team during the period. Samuels and Gayle were two of the top bowlers statistically at the death. Lara should be wary of using Bravo at the end though, as he is numbered among the most expensive.
As time has shown, despite repeated low scores, the West Indies are fully capable of being world beaters. Here's to more calypso and less collapso cricket and just maybe the entire region will be celebrating on April 28, with captain Lara lifting the World Cup.
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