THE WEST Indies are facing elimination in the Super Eights due to the fact that they have played some terrible cricket all round.

None of the batsmen have put up a consistent run of scores in the six matches played and so, have failed. Apart from Darren Powell with 11 wickets at 3.76 runsper over, none of the bowlers have put in a decent shift over all six games; and in the field, especially since the three Super Eights contests, the Windies look lethargic, dispirited and have been atrocious.

In the last first-round match here against Ireland, Marlon Samuels put down a waist-high catch off Jeremy Bray; Dwayne Smith, one of the game's better fielders, put down a 'sitter' off Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene on the boundary; Shivnarine Chanderpaul, on the boundary rope, pushed an attempted catch off Australia's Matthew Hayden for six when he would have been better off pushing the ball back into play for a run or two; and Ramnaresh Sarwan, on the boundary in the Australia match, twice ran under hits plundered by Hayden.

One just fell over the rope for six and the other just inside it for four. Apart from that, there have been a few overthrows and some terrible misfielding with players not picking up the ball cleanly, especially in the Sri Lanka game.

No good totals

In the last three matches, the team did not put up good totals while batting first once and chasing 300-plus totals twice and the players' poor response, it appears, is testimony that they are buckling under pressure to chase high or defend very modest scores.

Since the start of the tournament, despite a reasonably strong top five, the West Indies batters have not set the place alight.

In fact, a big part of the problems being faced by the team lies in the fact that the batsmen have been pretty average, scoring 241-9 off 50 overs against Pakistan, 204-4 in 47.4 overs to beat Zimbabwe, 219 all out in 45.3 overs chasing Australia's 322-6, 177 off 47.4 overs against New Zealand, and 190 in 44.3 overs chasing Sri Lanka's 303-5. The only match in which they scored decently was against minnows Ireland, amassing 190-2 to win in 38.1 overs racing a rain threat.

Only two players are averaging more than 40, Lara at 49.25 with 197 runs and Chanderpaul, 45.4, and a team-high 227. Sarwan, 31.5 with 189 runs, follows but himself, Gayle and Samuels need to get up to that 45-mark as well for the team to consistently make competitive totals.

Apart from that, they never got any starts in five matches so the team has not been able to build an innings. Against Zimbabwe Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Chris Gayle added 73 for the first wicket, but it has been dismal otherwise with 1-7 against Pakistan, 1-24 against Ireland, 1-11 against Australia, 1-14 vs New Zealand and 1-20 on Sunday against Sri Lanka when Bravo replaced Chanderpaul at the top.

That tactical move backfired. That has been the case when the Windies start tinkering with their batting order. A left-right combination to offset the bowlers may have sparked that change, but the far more experienced Sarwan, who virtually faced the new ball in five of the six World Cup matches, is a better batsman who has scored more and averaged more than Bravo - 101 and 25.25 - batting at less difficult periods down the order. Their strike rate is not different either - Bravo slightly better at 76.56 to Sarwan's 75.87.

Tactical flaw

Another case with a tactical flaw applies to batsman Lendl Simmons playing ahead of bowler Jerome Taylor, the other strike bowler in a team that finds it difficult to contain world-class competition.

The bowling problems have been manufactured over time though with the generally medium pace and part-time cast that looked very capable on its day. It's day has clearly not come at this World Cup, yet, and its best bet now appears in playing Powell, Taylor, Corey Collymore and Ian Bradshaw all at once, then hope that the top five batsmen deliver as that's where the team must be looking to get its runs. Then, if those two facets come into play nicely, then the Windies could improve on the terrible cricket it has played to win its remaining three matches and enhance its very slim chances of not being eliminated from the Super Eights.