00:00The West Indies won all their Group C matches to reach the Super 8 stage at this year's T20 World
00:05Cup.
00:05Cricket analyst Fazir Mohamed is fully aware of the team's performances over the years
00:09and is therefore not getting carried away.
00:12At the same time, he says credit must be given where it's due.
00:16So far so good for the West Indies.
00:18Not perfect, but indeed a 100% record moving into the Super 8s
00:24and that's always of course an encouraging sign.
00:26But again, we look back on recent history, 2024, the West Indies also had a perfect record
00:31going into the Super 8s of a tournament that they hosted here in the Caribbean
00:36and then came the disappointment of losses at key points along the way to England and then South Africa
00:43and the West Indies failed to make the semi-finals.
00:46But certainly with all of the negativity associated with the West Indies,
00:51with the heavy criticism of coach Darren Samy,
00:53the team, it is fair to say, would have already exceeded expectations
00:58certainly by their victory over England.
01:00The West Indies are grouped alongside India, South Africa and Zimbabwe in the Super 8.
01:06The 2012 and 2016 winners face the Zimbabweans on Monday in Mumbai
01:11and Mohamed says the Africans cannot be taken lightly.
01:15Zimbabwe have been one of the revelations of this tournament.
01:18That match on Monday for the West Indies certainly is going to be a very tough challenge.
01:23They've got a tremendous spirit.
01:25They've played outstanding cricket.
01:27They're led superbly by Sikanda Raza.
01:29They upset Australia who are now out of the competition.
01:32And it just seems that the previous disappointments,
01:35the previous challenges that Zimbabwe would have faced in their cricket
01:39off the field and on and politically and otherwise,
01:43that has all been cast aside.
01:44And they're really playing some superb cricket.
01:47Their victory over Sri Lanka just a couple of days ago was also a very impressive result.
01:52The revered cricket analyst says the West Indies must also respect the others in the Super 8.
01:58Having said that, he believes it's not impossible to advance further.
02:02It's the finalists from the last tournament.
02:04South Africa who were well on their way to beating India in Barbados in that final.
02:09That's the next match for the West Indies after Zimbabwe.
02:12And then come the Champions India and the tournament favourites themselves.
02:16So really, if the West Indies can manage to get past two of these three teams
02:21and make it into the semi-finals, well then, there's no question that they would have merited
02:27their place, that they would have responded to a lot of the critics.
02:30Should the West Indies get to the semis, Mohamed says they could go all the way.
02:35His main concern is that consistency has been the team's bugbear.
02:39If the West Indies are consistent enough and have enough quality in their performance
02:45to make the last four, well then, anything can happen.
02:48It would be quite possible that the West Indies could defy all the odds and all the expectations,
02:53including the doubters like myself, to go on to lift the title if they make the semi-finals.
02:59But again, there's a lot of cricket to be played between now and then.
03:02Just looking ahead, the two semi-finals are on March 3rd and 5th,
03:06followed by the final on the 8th of that month.
03:09Beno, now only 264.
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