FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida, CMC – Captain Carlos Brathwaite said yesterday that West Indies’ failure to properly assess the pitch at the Central Broward County Stadium had led to their defeat in the opening Twenty20 International against India.
Sent in, West Indies slumped to 33 for five at the end of the sixth over before recovering through Kieron Pollard’s run-a-ball top score of 49 to reach 95 for nine off their 20 overs.
“I don’t think we assessed quickly enough. Obviously losing four wickets in the power-play, the odds are very low of actually winning a game,” Brathwaite said afterwards.
“I think we went from one extreme to the next. We went extremely hard at the top [before] myself and Pollard tried to rebuild.
“I could probably fault myself in being too slow as well but had we assessed a little bit quicker, used the same intent – because as a team we want to play aggressive, positive cricket – we would have played different shots and be settled with 130, 135, 140 – that would have been a winning score.
“It was not a true pitch but in cricket you can’t always have a true pitch to get 200-odd. Sometimes you need to graft, show some batsmanship and struggle to 140, 150 and make a game of it.”
Batting at number four, Pollard rescued the Caribbean side’s innings in a sensible knock that included two fours and four sixes.
Importantly, he put on 34 with Brathwaite (9) for the sixth wicket to help West Indies avoid a total collapse.
“That experience is invaluable, he’s been doing it in IPL at all numbers from four straight back down to eight and it just goes to show,” Brathwaite said of Pollard.
“He was able to exude batsmanship – he rebuilt in the power-play then once the spinners came on, he stroked the ball up and down and got some boundaries in between as well, so it was a fantastic knock by him.
“If the team had supported him a bit more we would’ve gotten to a bigger total and probably he would have been able to put in a better personal performance.”
Defending a small total, West Indies forced India to labour by taking wickets at key points, before the visitors eventually got home in the 18th over to win by four wickets.
Off-spinner Sunil Narine was at his best in his first outing for West Indies in nearly two years, taking two for 14 from four miserly overs while seamers Sheldon Cottrell (2-20) and Keemo Paul (2-23) supported with two wickets apiece.
Brathwaite said like Pollard, Narine’s experience had shown in the effort.
“Sunil’s four overs in any cricket is very important. Today he showed his experience, he had it on a string and brought us back into the game,” the all-rounder pointed out.
“Kudos to the pacers as well, they did well to set it up so that when [Narine] came on he could have done the job he did.
“With a little bit more runs on the board, his personal performance could have looked a lot better as well but as a team I think we fought well, we grafted well with a small score and it’s back to the drawing board.”
Brathwaite said despite the defeat, West Indies would continue to be positive but also try to improve on their assessment of conditions.
“The message will continue to be ‘keep the intent’, however we need to assess better and be a bit smarter in our shot selection,” the Barbadian stressed.
“So it’s not trying not to get boundaries but knowing if you get a boundary early in an over on a tough pitch we can settle for six, seven, eight [runs] an over. Our power in the back end…in the last five overs …we could’ve gotten up to 150 today.”
West Indies face India in the second match of the doubleheader here today.
