JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, CMC – West Indies are keen to improve on their display in Cape Town and wrap up their three-match Twenty20 International series here today, when they face South Africa in the second game at the Wanderers.
The Caribbean side broke their losing slump coming out of the Test series by hammering the Proteas by four wickets in the opening T20I at Newlands on Friday.
However, captain Darren Sammy said his side would be taking nothing for granted as they chased victory again in an attempt to seal the series with a game to go.
“It will be a different venue and we have to start all over again. It is about wrapping up the series tomorrow so that on the 14th we can give the guys who missed out an opportunity to play,” Sammy said on Saturday.
“It’s a new game. We know we’re playing South Africa, a good side, so we have to go out there and put in another display like we did in Cape Town and look to claim the series after the second game.”
Chasing 166 for victory, West Indies were inspired by fit-again opener Chris Gayle who stunned South Africa with an assault that yielded a top score of 77 off just 31 deliveries.
He smashed five fours and eight sixes en route to the fastest T20 half-century by a West Indies player off just 17 balls.
He and put on 78 for the first wicket with Dwayne Smith who made 20 and another 36 for the second wicket with the in-form Marlon Samuels whose 41 came off 37 balls.
“It was a good way to start the T20 series, our first match for the year. I think it was a clinical victory and even through it went to the last over which I thought it shouldn’t have, we will take that against the Proteas,” Sammy explained.
“In the team meeting I told the guys to just go out and play freely. We play all over the world and excite everybody, so when we play for West Indies I want them to have that same sort of freedom and the calibre of players we have in our T20 line up, allows us to go out there and do that.
“It was good to sit in the dugout and watch Gayle and Smith put on another fifty partnership in quick time and that took the game away from South Africa. Jason Holder up front started off well with the new ball. All in all it was a good outing even though we can still improve on a few areas.”
And improvements are what Sammy wants, both in the field and with the bat. When South Africa batted, the Windies had moments of lapses which allowed the hosts to recover from 33 for two in the fifth over and reach 165 for four.
In their turn at the crease, West Indies were cruising at 147 for two in the 16th over but lost four quick wickets for 17 runs in the space of 24 deliveries, to extend the game to the last over
“Wanderers normally is a very, very good wicket. I think on average it is a 170-run wicket so the margin for error becomes even slimmer,” Sammy pointed out.
“We had a number of occasions [in the last game] when we bowled, that the first ball and last ball of the over went for boundaries so if we can start our overs and close them off well, it’s the difference between the over going for ten [runs] instead of seven or six. That we can improve on.”
He continued: “We were not as clinical in the field as we usually are. We missed out on some half chances which could have been costly for us so we could improve on that.
“That [batting] collapse there in the end where we lost a few wickets with probably 19 runs to go. Those areas we can improve so that when we have the opposition on the back foot we can keep pegging away at them.”
The game bowls off at 3 pm (9 am Eastern Caribbean time)
