Guptill proud but eyes overall triumph

Monday, 23 March 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

New Zealand’s Martin Guptill smiles after beating the West Indies in their Cricket World Cup quarterfinal match in Wellington, March 21, 2015. REUTERS Martin Guptill said his record-breaking innings against the West Indies was still sinking in after he helped the Black Caps into the World Cup semi finals on Saturday (21 March). The opener blasted 237 not out, including 11 sixes, to record the highest score in a World Cup match. His effort helped New Zealand to 393 in their 50 overs in Wellington, and they sealed a 143-run win when they bowled the West Indies out for 250. “I’m not sure what happened today to be honest,” 28-year-old Guptill told reporters after the match. “It hasn’t sunk in yet. I was proud of what happened today. Hopefully, moving forward we can win another game and another one after that. So just pretty proud to have scored that many runs and get the win as well.” “From the start I just wanted to play each ball as it came. Once it got down to the last ten overs it was just to have a bit of fun and try to hit a few boundaries. There were a couple of good partnerships in the last ten overs that got us up to nearly 400.” Opening bowler Trent Boult chipped in with four wickets and bowled 10 overs unchanged as the West Indies threat blew itself out after Chris Gayle was dismissed for 61. Boult said the win was a good one given the number of dangerous players the West Indies have, and added that he hoped New Zealand could repeat their success against South Africa in the semi final on Tuesday. “I guess they’ve had their troubles, but we knew they were going to be very competitive,” he said. “They’ve literally got 11 match winners on their team, so it was really set up from Guppy first of all. But now we can focus on the South Africans, and they’ll be an equal challenge if not better. So like I said, we’ll scout them and prepare for that game as we have for any other one. Yeah, sit their game plan down and give it our best come Tuesday.”