2011-02-28

Sammy dedicates Windies win to injured Dwayne Bravo

"His (Roach's) role in the team is to be a strike bowler for us and it was important that he went out and did it," West Indies captain Darren Sammy said. —Reuters Photo

NEW DELHI: Captain Darren Sammy hailed a vital win for his West Indies side after their disappointing opening defeat to South Africa, dedicating the victory over the Netherlands Monday to the injured Dwayne Bravo.

Seamer Kemar Roach grabbed a hat-trick as the Caribbean side crushed the minnows by 215 runs in a Group B fixture to get their World Cup campaign up and running.

Roach, who became the sixth bowler to take a World Cup hat-trick, finished with 6-27 as the Dutch were dismissed for 115 in 31.3 overs.

"That's what we've been asking for and it's good to see us do that with ball and bat," said Sammy.

"We all know how it's important for a player to play in a World Cup. To see the pain on his (Bravo's) face, most of the guys agreed that we're going to lift up our spirits and use Dwayne Bravo as an inspiration to the team."

"This win was for Dwayne," he said.

Bravo, the side's leading all-rounder and talisman for the past four years, suffered a major injury to his left knee during the defeat against South Africa last Thursday.

He has been ruled out of the tournament and is expected to be out of the game for a minimum of four weeks.

Speaking about hat-trick star Roach, Sammy said: "It was great, it was brilliant. His role in the team is to be a strike bowler for us and it was important that he went out and did it."

"It's important to see us winning but not only winning but winning convincingly and Roachy came out and put his hand up and doing what he came to do for the team," he added.

A delighted Roach said the win would give the West Indies much-needed confidence ahead of their next match against Bangladesh in Dhaka on Friday.

"The surface was kind of slow so our plan was to bowl straight at the stumps," he said, putting his improvement over the past year down to "ability to keep my pace up and be as accurate as possible."

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