King’s century leads West Indies to victory

CMC – Opener Brandon King struck a second OneDay International hundred as under-pressure West Indies halted their three-game losing skid with a convincing seven-wicket over Oman in their penultimate game of the ICC World Cup Qualifiers here Wednesday.

Tasked with chasing 222 at the Harare Sports Club, West Indies managed to shake off the ghosts of the last two weeks and reel in their target in the 40th over, with the right-handed King top-scoring with exactly 100 from 104 deliveries

Captain Shai Hope guided his side over the line with an unbeaten 63 of 65 balls, the Caribbean side enduring little discomfort in a straightforward run chase over the Gulf state which only attained ODI status four years ago and is comprised largely of semi-professionals.

Sent in earlier, Oman made a fist of it by gathering 221 for nine from their 50 overs, Suraj Kumar (53 not out) and Shoaib Khan (50) getting fifties, and Kashyap Prajapati (31) and Ayaan Khan (30) chipping in with valuable knocks

Fast bowling all-rounder Romario Shepherd, in only his third game of the campaign, finished with three for 44 while medium pacer Kyle Mayers picked up two for 31

The points gained from the win were meaningless, however, with West Indies already eliminated from contention for a place at the World Cup in India later this year following their devastating defeat to Scotland last weekend

“[The performance] is a little too late, unfortunately But I’m happy to see the strides that we have taken especially in the past few games that we played,” Hope said afterwards

“In international cricket now, there are no walk- overs Every team has quality players [so] you have to respect the game of cricket, and I think that’s what we