WELLINGTON: The undefeated New Zealand are preparing to take on Chris Gayle in the World Cup quarter-final, regardless of any uncertainty over the fitness of the star West Indies batsman.

Gayle missed the West Indies last pool match against the United Arab Emirates on Sunday as the back injury which has troubled him for most of the past year flared again.

The severity of the injury is unclear and it may be the West Indies simply rested him to be sure of his availability for the last quarter-final at the Westpac Stadium.

But New Zealand are taking no chances and when they carry out their routine scouting of the West Indies team this week, Gayle’s potential influence will be a major focus.

“Obviously everyone knows what Chris Gayle can do and he is one of the biggest match-winners in world cricket, so it’s important we put a little bit of focus on him,” New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson said on Monday. “But it is more important we focus on ourselves ... and what we want to do.

“When he plays well, he takes any team down in world cricket. But ... we’ve got players who are world-class players as well that can take games away so it’s going to be exciting game between two teams with match-winners.”

Gayle has the World Cup record for highest score — his 215 against Zimbabwe — but otherwise had scores in pool matches of 36, 4, 3, and 21. He often struggled to get through the critical first 10 overs, after which scoring can be become easier.

New Zealand on Saturday will realise the necessity of removing Gayle early and will rely on the ability of opening bowlers Trent Boult and Tim Southee to make that breakthrough.

Published in Dawn March 17th , 2015

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