SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates, CMC – West Indies opener Andre Fletcher says he was forced to curb his aggression, initially, as Johnson Charles dominated their unbeaten opening stand against Zimbabwe in their second warm-up game here on Monday.
Fletcher’s decision to restrain his normal hostility allowed Charles to plunder the Zimbabwe attack with a 48 ball top score of 92 that propelled West Indies to a ten wicket victory and a two-nil series win.
Fletcher eventually got into the run flow scoring 56 from 33 balls with five fours and three sixes.
“It was good that I got that score under my belt. Knowing the start that Johnson got I had decided to try my best and rotate as much as possible to give him the majority of the strike,” said Fletcher.
“He was hitting the ball cleanly. So as the overs went on I eventually got into my zone and capitalized on the bad deliveries”.
Windies raced to a victory target of 154 without loss after the Zimbabweans made 153-7 off 20 overs.
The wicket-keeper batsman, a leading scorer for the Windward Islands Volcanoes in the current WICB Professional Cricket League (PCL), says he is aware of the adjustments needed in switching formats from four-day to T20.
“It’s just a few adjustment. I just have to be more aggressive but yet still selection is very key so once I am selective as possible that would help me a lot in performing consistently,” said Fletcher, who was named Grenada’s male Cricketer of the Year, at the annual awards staged here over the weekend.
“It is a great honor. It’s good to see that I have been improving. I just have to continue my performance and hopefully continue to get that award”.
West Indies will continue their preparation with another T20 warm-up against English County Warwickshire on Friday here.
They are preparing for the Twenty20 World Cup starting March 8 in India.
