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You can be forgiven for thinking that the player who helped the regional team best Ireland by 197 runs in Sunday’s third ODI was Nicholas Pooran.
Truth be told, when you hear that a current West Indian batsman hit eight sixes and 15 fours in a 142-ball innings of 170 to give the Maroon Men a big win and a 1-1 draw in the three-match series—the name that comes immediately to mind is emphatically not Keacy Carty.
Photo: Getty Images.
That remains true even when you know the relevant facts. In the first match, West Indies surrendered meekly to the hosts, losing by the convincing margin of 124 runs before rain ruined the second one. Regrettably.
A Carty century had powered the now Shai Hope-led side to a daunting 352 for 8.
In the Indian Premier League, in the meantime, things were not exactly going swimmingly for the eight West Indians on franchise books.
For virtually the first half of the 2025 season, star batsman Pooran led the League in four performance categories: Most Runs (orange cap), Super Striker, Most Sixes and Most Valuable Player.
(via Probatsman.)
And yet, disappointingly, he has not been able to lead the Lucknow Super Giants into the all-important playoffs.
But there is a straw at which we drowning West Indian supporters can clutch; you’ll probably need a magnifying glass to see it: the prolific six-hitting left-hander did play a part in shaping the final line-up of the four-team, four-match, end-of-season knockout mini-tournament.
When he was on top of his form and on top of the list of orange cap contenders, LSG were riding high. They got to ten points with as many as six games left, winning five of their first eight games.
But after they lost to Delhi Capitals by eight wickets in Round 9, they seemed to lose their way.
Photo: AFP/ Getty Images.
Mumbai Indians, Punjab Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad all got the better of them in the three rounds that followed, leaving them on ten points from 12 matches.
And out of the playoffs!
Table-toppers GT were on 18 points, their playoffs place secure. Victory would ensure a Qualifier 1 place for them. But Mitchell Marsh and Pooran had other plans.
When the left-hander strolled out to the middle to join the Australian Mitchell Marsh on 91 for 1 after nine overs in Match 64 last Thursday, the die was already cast. Only pride to play for.
When the two were finally separated, LSG’s total had already crossed 200. Marsh had gone on the rampage, amassing 117 off 64 balls.
For once the junior partner, Pooran contributed only 56 off his 27 balls. But it was, along with his 45 run out versus SRH in Match 61 on May 19, only his second substantial knock in six innings.
In pursuit of 236 for the win, GT got 38 off 22 balls from Sherfane Rutherford. In vain.
Photo: Associated Press.
Shubman Gill’s team’s points tally remained an accessible 18.
Surely RCB, on 17 and next up against back-markers SRH, would leapfrog them.
Ha!
Romario Shepherd grabbed two scalps and two catches in SRH’s 231 for 6. Coming in at number six in the 16th over, however, he could not reproduce his swing-for-the-hills heroics of early May.
His golden duck marked the beginning of the end, RCB collapsing from 174 for 4 to 189 all out.
So, GT stuck on 18, RCB a point behind, tied with PBKS for second. Would the Kings accelerate into the lead with a win over the back-pedalling DC?
They did not. But it was worth noting that, despite the top-of-the-table versus bottom-of-the-table match-ups, for the third successive day, the top three placings remained unchanged.
Photo: Associated Press.
And what Pooran and Mitchell Marsh started continued into a fourth day.
On Sunday, table-proppers Chennai Super Kings amassed 230 for 5. GT could muster only 147 in reply, Rutherford making a four-ball duck.
So they remained in the lead on 18 points from their complement of 14 games. But the chasing three all had one match left!
The good news for Gill was that the last game for both third-placed PBKS and fourth-placed MI was the same, Monday’s Match 69. Only the winner of that game could equal or surpass 18 points and match or overhaul GT’s 0.254 NRR.
Photo: BCCI.
Defeat meant a place in the Eliminator.
PBKS won. They beat a lacklustre MI by 7 wkts to move to the top of the table. Gill and company now had one foot in Thursday’s Qualifier 1 and one in Friday’s Eliminator.
Like the West Indian support, they were doubtless hoping Pooran would find his early season form in Tuesday’s Match 70, GT versus RCB. That would have helped keep RCB on 17. But it did not happen.
Skipper Rishabh Pant got a long-awaited century. But 228, no easy target, proved not to be beyond RCB.
Photo: Getty Images.
Pooran perished off the penultimate ball, trying to power Shepherd over midwicket. His 13 contained no boundaries.
If he is to win the Most Sixes award, his 40 maximums will have to suffice. And he’s no longer in the running for any other award.
So GT ended up pitted against MI in the Friday Eliminator and RCB who, remember, have never won an IPL final, will take on the Kings in Thursday’s Qualifier 1.
Photo: AFP/ Getty Images.
That means that, of the West Indians, only Rutherford and Shepherd remain in the fray.
How many Maroon eyes will still be trained on the IPL? Won’t our gaze shift to the three ODIs which—starting Thursday in Edgbaston—pit Hope’s cock-a-hoop troops against an uncertain England under new white-ball captain Harry Brook?
Will the newbie find a way to keep the laid-back 28-year-old in-form Sint Maarten batsman quiet? Or will Hope take the pressure off him by delivering big-time as he has so often done in the 50-over format?
Photo: CWI Media.
And what about Shimron Hetmyer? In IPL 2025, his 13 innings yielded fifty once and 25-plus only twice more. What, if anything, does his inclusion in the squad for England tell us about the state of our cricket?
The questions abound. The answers, it seems reasonable to hope, will further sweeten the post-Carty taste now in West Indian mouths.
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Earl Best taught cricket, French, football and Spanish at QRC for many years and has written consistently for the Tapia and the Trinidad and Tobago Review since the 1970’s.
He is also a former sports editor at the Trinidad Guardian and the Trinidad Express and is now a senior lecturer in Journalism at COSTAATT.
