Law: Players gave their all for Caribbean fans

HARARE, Zimbabwe, CMC):

Head coach Stuart Law has dedicated West Indies' successful World Cup qualification to Caribbean fans, and said they had been had the forefront of the players minds throughout the tournament.

The Caribbean side ensured their place at the 2019 showpiece in England next year by edging Scotland by five runs under Duckworth-Lewis-Stern, after rain washed out their final Super Six match of the ICC World Cup Qualifiers at Harare Sports Club on Wednesday.

"There are a lot of people who support us back home and wishing us very well and this is for them," Law said following the triumph.

"The boys have worked extremely hard to get where they are. They don't like missing out on practice, they don't like doing less work - they like to work and that essentially paid off in this tournament.

"They've spilt blood for the people back home and I'm really happy we can celebrate something when we get home."

West Indies struggled in one-day Internationals last year, winning just three times in 23 outings to miss out on automatic qualification for the World Cup.

Favourites to win the qualifying tournament here, West Indies navigated a few tough moments during the preliminaries to finish unbeaten. They were stunned by Afghanistan in their opening Super Six match to leave their qualification bid in peril before pulling out the stops to beat hosts Zimbabwe in a dramatic run chase to remain on course.

"The journey we have been on for the last year, we have had some bad times, some reasonable times," the Australian recalled.

"We came here to qualify for the World Cup, and we have played some pretty good cricket along the way. Today, we were pushed by Scotland, credit to them, they fought hard."

Law praised his players for the way in which they had fought back after finding themselves behind.

"For Marlon Samuels to come in at two for two and put on 121 runs was crucial once again. It would have been nice if Samuels or Evin Lewis had gone further into the innings, but they absorbed pressure and managed to get enough on the board," he explained.