Smith shows the way for impact players

By John Cheeran
West Indies have come up with a mature display in the opening match of the World Cup.
They defeated Pakistan, a serious Super Eight contender, in a tough clash by an easy margin – 54 runs.
West Indies, quite often, have lost their way after the fall of early wickets and on Tuesday at Sabina Park fears were hovering around of another collapse and Pakistan pacers walking all over the hosts after winning a crucial toss.
It has been pointed out in Sunday Times survey that in the Caribbean team chasing a total stand a better chance of winning matches.
Well, this is only one match, Brian Lara and his men have proved that they can lift themselves from the depths of 85 all out in a pre-World Cup game against India and begin the tournament on a most pleasing note.West Indies innings had contributions from all round.
Marlon Samuel's stood out with his half-century, the only half-century of the West Indian innings. Samuel smote a few big blows. To begin with Ramnaresh Sarwan kept the scoreboard moving when Shivnaraine Chanderpaul preferred to offer a calming hand.
But the impact player of the match was Dwayne Smith.
Smith played the kind of knock that one-day cricket demands in slog overs and that can transform a team’s fortunes in a wink. A few lust hits against Rana Naved-ul-Hasan from Smith gave the West Indies a total to fight for.
Any team that harbours ambitions of winning the World Cup should be able to unleash Smithesque innings on the rival bowling. Australia has an array of such hitters.
India has Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the deep and South Africans have Justine Kemp.