NEW DELHI – Kemar Roach produced a magical spell to claim the first hat-trick of the 2011 World Cup, lifting West Indies to a 215-run win over the Netherlands in a Group B match on Monday.
The 22-year-old Barbadian fast bowler removed Pieter Seelaar, Bernard Loots and Berend Westdijk with the last three deliveries of the match to skittle the Dutchmen for 115 runs in 31.3 overs.
Out to convince the sceptics, West Indies earlier rattled up 330-8 and then returned to bowl out their upstart Dutch opponents for an easy victory that would do their confidence a world of good.
After the patchy display against South Africa on Thursday, the West Indies batsmen came up with a more consistent show against the wayward Dutch bowlers with Chris Gayle (80), Devon Smith (53) and Kieron Pollard (60) helping themselves to comfortable half-centuries.
They then returned to unleash Roach and towering left-arm spinner Benn (3-28) to dismantle the Dutch resistance.
Roach trapped Seelaar and Loots lbw before flattening Westdijk’s middle stump to complete his hat-trick.
Having lost their top half for 36 runs inside 11 overs, the Netherlands’ chase looked doomed right from the start and it was a morale-shattering defeat for the side that gave England such a scare last week before narrowly going down.
Put into bat at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium where they went down to South Africa on Thursday, West Indies got off to a rollicking start with Gayle and Smith stitching together a century opening stand.
Down the order, Pollard celebrated his promotion in the batting line-up with a 27-ball blitz to guide the team past the 300-mark. (Reuters)
