Gayle Relieved At Windies Progress

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Gayle - relieved to progress.

West Indies opener Chris Gayle admitted the hosts were relieved to book their place early in the World Cup Super Eight thanks to a six-wicket victory over Zimbabwe.

Brian Lara's men had 13 balls to spare at Sabina Park as they made it two wins out of two to confirm their place as one of the qualifiers from Group D.

"It's good to get it over with," Gayle told Sky Sports. "Now we are in orbit.

"It's good to be in the Super Eights so we're looking forward to Ireland and then moving on.

"We will have to beat Ireland. They're on a high and we're not going to take them for granted.

"We're playing as a unit and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. We really look good out on the middle."

Set a target of 203 after choosing to field first, West Indies were always ahead of the rate and a 48-ball knock of 40 from Gayle helped set a platform which enabled Brian Lara and Dwayne Bravo to see their side home with an unbroken 75-run partnership.

The elegant Gayle struck three successive huge sixes back over the head of Tawanda Mupariwa as he dominated an opening stand of 73 in 17.2 overs with Shivnarine Chanderpaul and admitted he thought about emulating the feat of Herschelle Gibbs, who his six sixes in an over last week.

"It did come into my mind," he said. "It was good to see the ball going over the boundary."

Earlier, an 83-run partnership for the fourth wicket by Brendan Taylor, who struck a patient 50, and 20-year-old Sean Williams, who finished with a career-best 70 not out from 88 balls, saw Zimbabwe to a respectable 202 for five.

"My coach just told me to stick around with Brendan and run as many singles as I could," said Williams.

"It's a pity we couldn't go on with the partnership because I am sure we could have got to 230."