West Indies play Australia in the final Super Eight clash at St. Lucia and the match assumes proportions of a must-win encounter for West Indies. Australia are almost through to the semi-finals.

If West Indies (2/1 at Totesport) lose the game, irrespective of the result of the game between India and Sri Lanka, they should be out of the tournament. However, if Sri Lanka lose to India and West Indies win the game, the hosts will be through to the semi-finals. Of course, with the kind of form that the Aussies (4/9 at Blue Square) seem to have exhibited, it looks highly unlikely that the West Indians are going to have it any easy!

Australia has been bolstered by their batsmen at various stages of the games. The openers, Shane Watson (11/4 at Sky Bet) and Dave Warner (3/1 at Boylesports) have usually fired and if they have not been able to put the runs on the board, it is the likes of Michael Hussey (9/1 at Totesport), as he did against Bangladesh, David Hussey (7/1 at Totesport) against Pakistan or Cameron White (8/1 at Stan James, all to top-score for Australia), who smacked a near-100 against Sri Lanka, who have come to the rescue.

Michael Clarke (6/1 at Boylesports) is the one batsman, who has not been amongst the runs, and this could just be his game!

West Indies have been a one-man batting side in this tournament, as has been their case for some time in cricket. If Chris Gayle (5/2 at Coral to top-score for West Indies) delivers, and everything seems to be hunky-dory, while if he fails, the pressure on the lower order is almost palpable on their faces. Fortunately, Darren Sammy (20/1 at Stan James) looked to have come to the party in the league stage, there is only so much that he can do at the end of the innings, it will need Shivnarine Chanderpaul (7/2 at Blue Square) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (9/2 at Blue Square, both to be the best West Indian batsmen) to get a move on.

Kieron Pollard (10/1 at Stan James to be the best batsman for West Indies) had come into the tournament with much reputation, but, much like the rest of the batsmen, has struggled to play pace and bounce. With the pitch at St. Lucia expected to keep a tad low and play a little slow, his batting would be watched with much interest.

Tips:
Favourites: Australia (4/9 at Blue Square)
Top Australia batsman: Michael Clarke (6/1 at Boylesports)
Top West Indian batsman: Chris Gayle (5/2 at Coral)