Port-of-Spain, Trinidad – Following Saturday’s result in the Digicel Pearls T20 International, West Indies captain Darren Sammy touched on a few areas where he felt the team did quite well and the areas which need to be improved on as they approach the five-match Digicel Pearls One Day Series.
Playing in front a capacity crowd at the Queen’s Park Oval, West Indies fell 16 runs short of their target of 160, after the Indians made 159-6 off their 20 overs. Sammy was superb with the ball taking 4-16 from his four overs, to maintain his good performances at the ground. Last year he took 5-26 in the T20 International against Zimbabwe.
"We stuck at it to start with but I would say we let them get 20 runs too many and in the end that made the difference in the match. We did some good things today but as we reflect on the match we would all agree that we let a few situations get away from us. We have to work harder at winning those crucial situations, which can turn a match, especially in the shortest version of the game. It was a good decision to field first after winning the toss, but we didn’t restrict them to the total we wanted," Sammy said.
In the batting, left-hander Darren Bravo, playing before his home crowd, worked hard against the Indian spinners for his run-a-ball 41. At the bottom of the innings new boys Chris Barnwell and Danza Hyatt – both in their second match at this level – played some massive shots and added 50 runs off just 22 balls. Barnwell blasted three sixes and two fours in 34 not out off just 16 balls, while Hyatt made 14 not out from seven balls with a six and a four.
"It was great to see how Barnwell played and tried his best to keep us in the hunt. He got some great help from Hyatt there at the end. It was nice to see the guys showing the confidence and self-belief required. The batsmen have been doing a lot of work with Desmond Haynes [Batting Consultant] and we are seeing some improvements. We will keep working and looking for scoring opportunities against the spinners. The batsmen should play the spinners better come Monday," Sammy said.
The Digicel Pearls One-Day Series bowls off on Monday at Queen’s Park Oval. First ball is 9 am (8 am Jamaica Time).