Simmons, Sammy power West Indies to 304/7 against Ireland

Nelson (New Zealand), Feb 16 (IANS) A 154-run stand between Lendl Simmons (102) and Darren Sammy (89) spared West Indies the blushes and powered them to 304 for seven against Ireland in a Pool B encounter of the ICC World Cup here Monday.

The West Indies found themselves in heaps of trouble after being put into bat.

From wobbling at 87 for five, the West Indies managed to rally back to finish with a sizeable total, thanks largely to the 154-run partnership for the sixth wicket, off just 127 balls, between Simmons and Sammy.

Sammy fell 11 short of what would have been his maiden ODI ton, but Simmons managed to press on to get to the mark.

Irish spinner George Dockrell was the pick of the bowlers with his spell of three for 50. Earlier, explosive opener Chris Gayle (36) got off to an uncharacteristically slow start.

That put pressure on Dwayne Smith (18) and he fell in the eighth over trying to up the ante.

Darren Bravo (0) was run out without facing a ball as the West Indies slipped to 31 for two.

Gayle and Marlon Samuels (21) put on a 47-run partnership for the third wicket.

But Gayle was caught in the outfield while trying to hit Dockrell out of the ground.

That sparked a mini collapse as Samuels fell after two balls and Denesh Ramdin (1) after nine more runs.

Simmons and Sammy got together and blitzed the Irish bowling to all parts of the ground.Simmons hit nine boundaries and five sixes while Sammy plundered nine fours and four sixes.

In the end, Andre Russell smashed 27 off just 13 balls to take the Windies past the 300-mark.

Brief scores:

West Indies 304 for seven in 50 overs (Lendl Simmons 102, Darren Sammy 89; George Dockrell 3-50, John Mooney 1-59) against Ireland