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Hat-trick hero Roach destroys dismal Dutch

West Indies bowler Kemar Roach celebrates the dismissal of Netherlands batsman Bernard Loots during a ICC Cricket World Cup league match between Netherlands and West Indies in New Delhi, India yesterday. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

NEW DELHI (AP) Kemar Roach took a game-ending hat-trick as West Indies romped to a crushing victory over Netherlands by 215 runs at the World Cup yesterday.Roach dismissed Pieter Seelaar, Bernard Loots and Berend Westdijk off the first three balls of the 32nd over to bowl the Dutch out for 115 in the Group B match and bring it to a sudden conclusion. Fast bowler Roach finished with six for 27 to scoop the ‘man of the match’ award in the latest lopsided contest in the 2011 tournament.Dutch captain Peter Borren’s decision to put West Indies in to bat led to Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Devon Smith hitting half-centuries and steering their side to a daunting 330 for eight in 50 overs at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium.Gayle made 80, and shared a 100-run opening partnership with Smith (53), and Pollard smashed 60 off 27 balls towards the end, punishing Netherlands’ wayward bowling and sloppy fielding.“At the end of the day, if you are going to bat and bowl and field as poorly as we did, it doesn’t matter if we batted or bowled first,” Dutch skipper Borren said.Roach’s dramatic finish confirmed West Indies’ first victory of the tournament following a seven-wicket loss to South Africa in their opener. He had Seelaar and Loots both lbw and then clean-bowled Westdijk for just a sixth hat-trick at World Cups.“At first it (the hat-trick) wasn’t in my mind,” Roach said, “but then the captain pointed out to me that I am on a hat-trick and I went for broke and it worked.“Our bowling, it’s coming on. We have some very good bowlers and once we click we can get the job done . . . we can definitely repeat this.”Facing a huge total to win, Netherlands lost Wesley Barresi in the second over, caught at slip for Roach’s first wicket, and never looked like coming close to challenging West Indies’ score after that.Tom Cooper provided the sole resistance with 55 not out, hitting nine fours, but his team-mates crumbled around him as West Indies’ bowlers completed the dominant performance started by the batsmen.Spinner Sulieman Benn took 3-28 to back up Roach as Netherlands slumped to 56 for six and then lost their last four wickets for a mere two runs.West Indies’ opening batsman 8Gayle plundered seven fours and two sixes in his 110-ball innings after West Indies were asked to bat, suddenly bursting into life from the 10th over with five fours in the space of nine balls.Smith had begun with three fours off Mudassar Bukhari in the first over of the match and continued to stroke boundaries with ease to reach a half-century off just 45 balls.He fell trying to play a cut shot to a ball from Loots that cramped him for space and he was caught off a thin edge by wicketkeeper Barresi.Darren Bravo made a breezy 30 in a rapid 68-run partnership with Gayle, who was finally out when he lofted a straight drive to Kervezee in the outfield with the score on 196. He was dismissed one run short of becoming the fourth West Indian to reach 8,000 ODI runs.Promoted to number five, big-hitting Indian Premier League player Pollard effortlessly flicked his second ball over the bowler’s head for six, serving warning to the struggling Dutch bowlers of things to come.He sent a flurry of fours flying through the offside before lashing another towering six straight down the ground and high into the stands.Pollard passed 50 off just 23 balls, just three balls slower than the fastest half-century in World Cups, by Brendon McCullum of New Zealand against Canada in 2007.Pollard added one final boundary before holing out to Ten Doeschate at long-on off Bukhari in the 48th.His influence had taken West Indies from 196 to 312 in a little over 11 overs and a commanding position from where his side were never likely to lose.“It’s important to see we’re winning, but not only winning, but winning convincingly,” West Indies captain Darren Sammy said. “Obviously the guys will take confidence from this game . . . we did a lot of good things.”