Veteran cricket commentator Joseph “Reds” Perreira praised the West Indies following their victory against England at the ICC T20 World Cup. The Windies claimed a relatively comfortable 30-run victory at the Wankhede in Mumbai, India, on February 11. The win significantly bolsters their chances of reaching the Super 8 stage .
“This was a magnificent win by the West Indies against England,” Perreira told St. Lucia Times. “England no doubt was seeded and the West Indies were not. West Indies started the day as the underdogs, but a brilliant performance, a combination of [Sherfane] Rutherford, [Gudakesh] Motie and [Roston] Chase, with contributions from Hetty [Shimron Hetmyer] and [Jason] Holder, saw the West Indies winning by a country mile and turned around the whole ranking system.”
Despite the victory, Perreira is emphasising that the job is far from finished. Specifically, he focused on the reality that the Windies still face a tough matchup against a tricky Nepalese team who can upset any opponent in the tournament.
“The West Indies now can look forward to their game against Nepal and they know that Nepal gave England a run for their money. They cannot underrate this talented subcontinent team. They have a great number of spinners. The conditions in India do favour the spinners.
“One can expect that the one change that West Indies made – that Matthew Ford was left out and Roston Chase came in – proved to be very successful. The West Indies must keep their eyes on the net run rate. And of course, if they lose to Nepal for some reason, their net run rate might take them further.
“Of course, England was seeded by the ICC in that section of the competition, so that might just help England. But right now, the West Indies are the happy camp in the World Cup. England is probably wondering what will happen to the West Indies-Nepal game, and the World Cup is very much alive.”
