ICC World Cup 2015: Martin Guptill's double hundred helps New Zealand defeat West Indies to seal SF berth

One does not witness a double hundred in the knockouts of the World Cup every now and then. Martin Guptill became only the second player, after Chris Gayle, to score a double hundred at the biggest stage of the sport.

Guptill's unbeaten 237 off 163 balls helped New Zealand post a mammoth total of 393 runs for the loss of six wickets from 50 overs. West Indies could manage only 250 runs which came in just 30.3 overs, resulting in a defeat of 143 runs.

Guptill became the first player to score a double hundred in a World Cup knockout, beating Adam Gilchrist's earlier record of 149 in 2007. Guptill's unbeaten knock of 237 helped him get the Man of the Match award.

New Zealand won the toss and Brendon McCullum elected to bat first. After a boundary off the first ball from Guptill, there was a chance of a catch, which was put down by Marlon Samuels at square leg.

That dropped catch cost West Indies very dearly as Guptill went on to score a double hundred, becoming the first New Zealand player and the fifth player in history to score 200 plus runs in the ODI.

Chris Gayle gave a good start to West Indies when he struck 61 off 33 balls. However, the hard hitting left-hander had little support from the other end as West Indies had lost four wickets before the end of the mandatory powerplay.

Cameos from Jonathan Carter, Darren Sammy, Andre Russell and Jason Holder down the order helped the Caribbean side post a total of 250 runs in just 30 overs. With wickets in hand the West Indies may have been able to chase down the total as almost 20 overs of play still remained.

New Zealand join defending champions India, South Africa and co-hosts Australia in the last four of the tournament. They will face the Proteas in one semi final, while India take on Michael Clarke's side in the other semi final next week.