AHMEDABAD, India, CMC – With West Indies under pressure to beat India and keep the five-match One-Day International series alive, team coach Ottis Gibson reckons there is some comfort in the fact that they have fought well against the world champions.
India lead the series 2-0 and West Indies are anxious to win the third match here today to sustain interest.
“It’s difficult to say I am satisfied when you are losing. But we have shown a lot of spirit and created opportunities to win. In the first game, making only 211 was disappointing. But the way the guys went out to defend 211 and got to the point where they could have won and the way they ended up losing was obviously difficult (to digest),” Gibson told reporters.
Gibson felt that things could have been different in the second game at Vishakapatnam had they not grassed the chance offered by skipper Virender Sehwag to his opposite number Darren Sammy off fast bowler Kemar Roach in the second over of the innings, along with a couple other chances.
“The new ball was the key. We created some opportunity, got a couple of wickets but dropped Sehwag. If perhaps Rohit (Sharma) and (Virat) Kohli had to come in and face the new ball a little bit earlier it could have been a different story,” Gibson said.
He, however, acknowledged the splendid batting by the two young Indian batsmen, who notched up a 163-run partnership to engineer India’s win.
“Having said that, those two played exceptionally well and took the game away from us. We lost but have not disgraced ourselves,” said Gibson, adding the way Ravi Rampaul, who slammed a career-best, unbeaten 86 and Roach, with 24 not out, played in their last wicket partnership of 99 “was obviously very heartening”.
Gibson said the batting failure was the main cause for his team’s undoing so far.
“The batting failed due to lack of application and a bit of thought processes. We want people to take responsibility and assess the situation a little bit better. If we lose a few wickets early what is needed is for the next two batsmen to put together a partnership. We want to execute the plans like we saw Kohli and Rohit Sharma did in the last game,” Gibson said.
Gibson, a former West Indies fast bowler, also noted that the team was now not depending on one or two players.
“Perhaps in the past we relied a lot on one or two people. Not anymore. In the Test series we had the likes of Kraigg Brathwaite coming in and making runs and Kirk Edwards has done exceptionally well since he started his Test career. Rampaul and Kemar Roach are showing self assurance.”
Gibson believed that the team had in it to win close games in the remainder of the series.
“We learn all the time, we are getting close to winning. If we could win one of those close games, that will be a big thing for this young team. We created two good opportunities; we could have won, but didn’t. There are still three games left in the series and there’s no reason why all the games cannot end up in the last over. And there’s no reason why we cannot win one or two of them.”
Gibson also backed Sammy who has failed in the first two games with the bat.
“He’s struggling a little bit in this format. I believe he will perform in the next game. He works very hard on his game and has a lot of belief in himself. He knew before he got the job what a difficult job it is.
“Captaining any international team is not easy. He’s got everyone’s support. He needs to get out and back his ability a bit more. He’s a strong character. He’s done well but he knows he’s not performing as well as he should. He should be making more runs,” Gibson said.
Teams (from):
India – Virender Sehwag (captain), Varun Aaron, Ravichandran Ashwin, Gautam Gambhir, Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli, Abhimany Mithun, Parthiv Patel, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Rahul Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, R Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav.
West Indies – Darren Sammy (captain), Adrian Barath, Darren Bravo, Danza Hyatt, Anthony Martin, Jason Mohammed, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Kieran Powell, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons.
