Windies unbeaten in double wicket

CASTRIES: Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi hit 11 mighty sixes to provide most of the excitement on yesterday’s opening day of the inaugural World Double Wicket cricket tournament.

But it was the West Indies pair of Carl Hooper and Chris Gayle who took the real honours, ending with two wins from their two matches to top the table with four points. All eight Test-playing countries are fielding two-man teams for the US$175,000 tournament, organised by the St. Lucia Tourist Board in an effort to boost sports tourism. The winning pair will take away US$65,000, and the runners up US$30,000. Afridi, partnered with former Pakistani captain and all-rounder Wasim Akram, delighted the small crowd with his hitting to register the day’s highest individual score of 73 to help his side reach 107 against Zimbabwe’s 43.

The West Indies pair was the only team not to lose a wicket in the day’s six round-robin matches. Hooper, the former West Indies captain, and opening batsman Gayle scored 39 without loss to beat England’s Andrew Flintoff and Adam Hollioake in the opening game by seven runs. Then they repeated the performance, putting on 34 together without being parted to defeat Zimbabweans Guy Whittall and Alistair Campbell, who made 26. Zimbabwe lost both its matches, the other one being against Pakistan, which belted its bowling for the day’s highest team score. The team was then dismissed for 43, with Campbell contributing 33. Six more matches in the round-robin stage were to be played yesterday before the semifinal and final are played today.

Summarised scores on the opening day:
West Indies (39) defeated England (32) by seven runs
Australia (27) defeated South Africa (-10) by 37 runs
Pakistan (107) beat Zimbabwe (43) by 64 runs
 New Zealand (31) beat Sri Lanka (26) by five runs
West Indies (34) defeated Zimbabwe (26) by eight runs
Sri Lanka (54) defeated Australia (-21)