Reactions from Sabina

Supporters of the West Indies team are still basking in that outstanding victory in the Cricket World Cup 2007 opener last Tuesday.

After Corey Collymore wrapped up the Pakistani innings, CaribbeanCricket.com sought reactions from some of the persons who were watching the action from the Press Box and surrounding areas. Here's what Lawrence Rowe, Captain Horace Burrell and Simon Crosskill had to say immediately following the win.

"Tremendous victory, because I thought Pakistan got the better of the wicket to bat on and this is why the victory is so good for the West Indies in that I think the bowlers bowled extremely well to contain them and to get Pakistan out for under 240. Very, very good performance by the bowlers here.
This morning the wicket had a little moisture on it and the ball was doing a little bit more this morning. This afternoon it dried out and it was coming on to the bat better. When Inzamam and Hassif were batting, it wasn't looking so good for us but we got the break and from there on, when Inzamam got out, I thought we would have come home.

The key performance was by Dwayne Smith I thought. His 32 towards the end kind of gave us a little cushion. I didn't think we had enough at the end, but it proved to be, at the end of the game, that we did get enough. He came back and bowled very well, so he's my Man of the Match.
This is a big win for us because I think the winner of this game is going to win this group, so we are going to be out of this group comfortably I think.

Like how we are the winner, we hope that the winner of this group wins the World Cup. For sure, for sure we can. For sure we can, oh yes, for sure. I think we are the team that Australia fears most, I think so, because we are the team that can upset them and I think they know that."

CAPTAIN HORACE BURRELL, Head of the Caribbean Football Union's marketing arm; credited with spearheading Jamaica's Reggae Boyz qualification for the 1998 World Cup.

"Well I thought it was a marvellous day's cricket. It was a keenly contested game. No one expected the West Indies to come back and perform this well having had the kind of start that we had, and towards the ending, which is something a little unusual, we came good. The performance in the field was excellent.

In fact I think this will go down as one of the best performances of a West Indian team in the field. The bowling, when you think that we didn't bowl a lot of no balls, we didn't bowl a lot of wides. It's just an incredible performance that I am sure has stunned the entire region. Marvellous performance, tremendous. The spectators behaved extremely well and also the spectators played their part as the 12th man.

Indeed, I have never witnessed a cricket game where people were cheering their team in very much the same way they do at a football game. It was incredible to see the Mexican wave at a cricket match and I am just hoping that this will be an example to the rest of the countries within the Caribbean, because naturally our team was a little bit flat at one stage, and the loud cheers started around the ground and I noticed that immediately it provided a lift. Not only did it provide a lift, but certainly it also created some amount of, I would say, unbalancing to the Pakistani team and that made it quite clear that the 12th man, even in the cricket game, can impact or affect a game one way or another. It did affect it positively in the direction of the West Indians today and I am very very happy.

SIMON CROSSKILL, Group Head of Sports for the RJR Group; cricket commentator

"A very competitive victory. A good performance by the West Indies in the field backed up by some very very good fielding. I thought the bowling was tight and disciplined, and it didn't allow the Pakistani big guns to get away.

There was a crucial spell involving Collymore and Powell that really kept things tight, and that helped the likes of Dwayne Smith and Bravo. A Man of the Match performance from Dwayne Smith with those two big wickets plus his quick-fire 32.

A good all round performance by the West Indies. The fear is that it is the West Indies and you never know what will happen with the next match, but you take it one day at a time with them, and I think they did very well today."