Clarke, Kiwis’ boy wonder

Clarke, who was later named man of the match and could be a future Black Cap in waiting, helped New Zealand storm into the semifinal of the tournament when he starred with the bat and ball during the two-wicket win over the West Indies at Willowmoore Park here. Clarke and fellow tailender Joey Field combined to make 86 runs for the ninth wicket partnership, with the former top-scoring with an unbeaten 46 - the highest score by a No 10 batsman in the history of the tournament.

Chasing a target of 239 was always going to be a tough mission for the New Zealanders, and even more so when kept surrendering wickets at regular intervals. But the impressive efforts from Clarke and Fieldled the Kiwis to seal their place in the semifinals after first coming together in the middle with NZ in desperate trouble at 153 for eight.

Just to prove he is also useful with the ball, Clarke earlier pouched four wickets for 25 runs with the ball. His contributions proved invaluable to the New Zealand side which will now face the winner of Bangladesh v South Africa. It wasn’t the first time Clarke had starred in this tournament, either.

Earlier it was his six off the penultimate ball against Sri Lanka in Bloemfontein that proved instrumental in the New Zealanders securing an exciting victory and securing a quarterfinal berth against the Windies.

Sri Lanka’s Dilshan Madushanka was bowling at the death when Clarke smashed the delivery over deep mid-wicket to rescue New Zealand from the brink of elimination.