WELLINGTON—West Indies opening batsman Chris Gayle has undergone scans on his injured back and should be ready to play in the team’s World Cup quarterfinal against New Zealand on Saturday (Friday 9 pm TT time), allrounder Darren Sammy said yesterday.
Gayle missed the West Indies’ final pool match against the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, but Sammy said he believes Gayle will take his place in the lineup for the quarterfinal. The injured batsman has received a cortisone injection to help with the pain.
“Chris is not missing this quarterfinal for anybody,” Sammy said. “He is more pumped up than we are. He’s been writing down the path for us and the different scenarios.”
The two-time champion West Indies will start as considerable underdogs in Saturday’s match. New Zealand was unbeaten in pool play, while the West Indies had to win their final match and lift their net run rate to scrape into the knockout rounds with a 3-3 record.
“It’s a big occasion but we’re not going to be overwhelmed,” Sammy said. “We’ve played New Zealand in a quarterfinal of a T20 World Cup before and when it came down to crunch time, we won. Same set of players. (CMC)