BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, CMC – West Indies captain Floyd Reifer expressed a huge sigh of relief, following his side’s five-wicket victory in a Twenty20 International against Bangladesh yesterday.
Victory came at long last for West Indies, when they stumped the Tigers by five wickets at Warner Park in the only T20I the two sides will contest.
“It’s good to have ended the series on a winning note albeit in a T20,” said Reifer.
“I thought the guys fielded really well to put them under pressure. In our team meetings, we talked about T20s being a really fast-paced form of the game, and we needed everyone to be sharp in the field.”
The result would be a small consolation for a West Indies side which has been depleted following a boycott by the leading players to protest contractual issues, and were swept by the Tigers in the preceding two Tests and three One-day Internationals.
“It was going to be difficult for us coming into this match after losing the Tests and ODIs,” said Reifer.
“But I told the guys that we had to look forward to the future, and think about the bigger picture. We needed to play hard for West Indies, and keep improving.
“As the series unfolded, the games were getting closer and closer, so it was just one win that we needed to gain that confidence in ourselves, and to start the winning ways.”
For Bangladesh, it was a small blot on an otherwise highly successful trip to the Caribbean.
“We have played very good cricket for the last month, and one bad game does not make us look bad,” said Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan.
“We are now looking forward to our next trip to Zimbabwe. It will be very important to us.
“We have a lot of good memories to take with us from the Caribbean. The people have been very nice, the beaches have been excellent, and it is a wonderful place to play cricket.”
Shakib felt either over-confidence, or complacency may have played a part in Bangladesh’s performance yesterday.
“We didn’t bat well, especially the top-order batsmen, including myself, and we did not play smart cricket, so that was our downfall,” he said.
“I do not know why we played this way, but we did not execute our game plan well, so this was the main problem, and it does not help when you have four run-outs in your innings, it will be very difficult for you to score runs in a T20.”
