MUMBAI, India, CMC – West Indies go toe-to-toe with hosts and title favourites India in the second semi-final of the Twenty20 World Cup today, in a game captain Darren Sammy has labelled a “David and Goliath” battle.
India, with the advantage of familiar conditions, the partisan home crowd and a convincing win over the Windies in the official pre-tournament warm-ups, enter the 7 pm (9:30 am Eastern Caribbean time) contest at the Wankhede Stadium as heavy favourites.
But West Indies, the 2012 champions, remain a huge threat and Sammy said they were backing themselves to upset India.
“The guys who predict the results say [the chances of winning] are 80-20 [in India’s favour] so it feels like a David and Goliath [battle] but people tend to forget David won the fight,” Sammy told reporters here yesterday.
“It’s something similar to that. We enjoy playing against India. A number of our players play here and we have a lot of respect for them. The camaraderie in the group in both teams is really good so we’re looking forward to that and what better place to play than here in Mumbai – one of the best wickets in India.”
He added: “Once we believe among ourselves, it doesn’t matter what other people think. As a group, we believe in each other’s ability, we believe in the talent and at the end of the day, cricket is played on the pitch.
“You could talk all you want – I could talk a good game – but it’s the action on the pitch that really matters.”
West Indies opened their Group 1 campaign with a convincing six-wicket victory over England before following up with positive results over Sri Lanka by seven wickets and South Africa by three wickets.
Their only blemish came in the final game last Sunday against minnows Afghanistan when they were stunned by six runs in Nagpur.
Sammy said no one in the batting group had taken responsibility for that run chase, an element that had been the feature of their previous victories.
“The key word was responsibility. It was one of the main words we used in the dressing room – someone taking the responsibility to bring the team home [and] not leaving it for anyone in the dressing room,” Sammy explained.
“The three games we won – the first game Chris batted throughout the innings, the second one it was Fletcher, the third one Marlon Samuels took us really close.
“We didn’t have that against Afghanistan chasing a low total. It’s about each person taking ownership of the job that is required out there and not leaving it for anybody else.”
West Indies lifted the T20 World Cup for the first time four years ago when they beat Sri Lanka in a thrilling final in Colombo. Two years later in Bangladesh, they went out in the semi-finals as Sri Lanka rebounded to win the title.
Earlier this year, West Indies Under-19s also won the ICC Youth World Cup in Bangladesh and with West Indies Women also contesting their T20 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand Women today, Sammy said he was hoping for a clean sweep of titles for the Caribbean.
“The Under-19 team started it in Bangladesh and both the men and the women’s teams took that as inspiration. Come tomorrow, we have two West Indian teams vying for a spot in the final,” he noted.
“I really wish both the teams could go to the finals and win it, so 2016 could be the year where West Indies take home everything.
“The guys in the dressing room are aware what is at stake. We came into the tournament and nobody gave us a chance. I said six steps to the World Cup. We have taken four … we have two more steps and tomorrow’s step is against India. We are looking forward to it.”
SQUADS:INDIA – MS Dhoni (captain), Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Shikhar Dhawan, Harbhajan Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli, Mohammed Shami, Pawan Negi, Ashish Nehra, Hardik Pandya, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Manish Pandey.
WEST INDIES – Darren Sammy, Samuel Badree, Sulieman Benn, Carlos Brathwaite, Dwayne Bravo, Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Jason Holder, Ashley Nurse, Denesh Ramdin, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Jerome Taylor, Evin Lewis.