New Zealand’s Martin Guptill made the highest score in World Cup history with 237 not out against West Indies to send his team into the semi-finals. His 163-ball innings in Wellington featured 11 sixes and 24 fours and beat the 215 made by West Indies’ Chris Gayle earlier in the tournament.Guptill, 28, hit 137 from his last 52 balls to help his side post 393-6. Trent Boult then took four early wickets as New Zealand bowled out the Windies for 250 to seal a 143-run win. Gayle’s 33-ball 61, featuring eight sixes, entertained the crowd as the Caribbean side scored at a furious pace. But they continued to lose wickets at regular intervals and were bowled out in 30.3 overs to spark jubilant scenes in the capital.
New Zealand, semi-finalists for the seventh time, will now face South Africa in Auckland on Tuesday at 01:00 GMT, with both seeking a first World Cup final appearance.Guptill’s score was the second best in one-day international history behind Rohit Sharma’s 264 and propelled the Black Caps to the highest total in a World Cup knockout match.
Having ended a run of 21 innings without a century in New Zealand’s previous match against Bangladesh, he became the fifth player to make an ODI double hundred.He joined Indians Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, and Gayle in the exclusive club.His effort was also the fourth highest score in all List A cricket – limited-overs games that are not Twenty20s.
