Raval ton dashes Windies’ hopes
Not certain if Jeet Raval is a big fan of bombastic ’80s pop anthems.
But he did perform a cracking rendition of Don’t You Forget About Me in Whangarei yesterday.
The Black Caps opener made a match-winning 169 as a virtual noname New Zealand XI stunned the West Indies in a ‘‘warm-up’’ one day match by six wickets.
The visitors were looking to build a little confidence ahead of the ODI series against New Zealand starting at the same venue on Wednesday.
Instead, a bunch of relative rejects handed what is basically a new-look squad a shock defeat.
Raval, like the rest of the selection side, isn’t wanted by his domestic association for the Super Smash Twenty20 competition.
He’s also likely a mile down the pecking order for the national oneday side, but emphasised this week after another strong contribution to two tests wins that he has big aims to improve his white-ball batting.
In Whangarei, his big ton was a stellar example of pacing a chase perfectly, coming from 150 balls and included 17 fours and a six. He was out with only eight runs required for victory.
Bharat Popli, who has struggled to buy a run since being named domestic player of the year in the 2015-16 season, was the perfect foil with 62 off 61 balls as they added 149 for the third wicket.
Earlier, brothers Kyle and Shai Hope combined to give the touring side what seemed to be a useful total.
The pair produced a secondwicket stand worth 138 that set up the Windies total of 288-9 in 48.4
overs. As an indication it may not have been going to be the Windies’ day, Kyle Hope retired after making what he thought was a century – but was later revealed by the official scorebook to be 94.
The opener struck nine fours in his 101-ball stay.
Younger brother Shai, who showed moments of class in the one-sided test series sweep by New Zealand, spanked 69 off 58 balls to give the innings most of its impetus, clubbing eight fours and a six.
Twenty-year-old offspinner Aniket Parikh starred with the ball for the NZ XI, taking 4-47 off his 10 overs.
Windies superstar Chris Gayle may have deemed the standard of the opposition unworthy of his presence as he sat out the encounter.
West Indies 288-9 in 48.4 overs (K Hope 94 ret out, S Hope 69; A Parikh 4-47) lost to New Zealand XI 289-4 (J Raval 169, B Popli 62) by six wickets.