Hard hitting all-rounder Odean Smith believes that a lack of application by the top order batsmen was responsible for the West Indies coming up short against India in the second One Day International (ODI) yesterday.
That defeat saw the visitors surrendering the three-match series and, for the eighth consecutive time, the West Indies have not batted their full 50 overs.
In an interview yesterday, Smith said “I think because the top order didn’t get any runs and didn’t spend any time at the wicket, I would say it was a difficult wicket to bat on but as I say with the Indians in their innings, two guys stayed out there, batted time and got runs so I think the mere fact that we didn’t go out there and apply ourselves in terms of batting time, I think that was the reason why we fell short.”
The 25-year-old tried valiantly towards the end with 24 from 20 balls but admitted too that he should have also played the patient game.
He reasoned, “As I said, the batsman should bat time. I should have done the same thing. We probably needed 44 from four overs, it’s not a lot but had taken it to two overs would be a different game rather than try and get it as quick as possible.”
But the Jamaican was not too hard on himself, noting that he has just played about five ODIs so far as he vowed to work hard on his all-round game.
A comparison was drawn to Andre Russell, his countryman who he labeled as someone he looks up to and took a few pages out of his book.
“I’d say Andre Russell because who plays a similar kind of cricket in terms of a hitting style and also the bowling… watching him over the years I’ve picked up a few stuff from him in batting, my bowling side is my bowling side but I’ve picked up a few stuff from him in the batting side,” he highlighted.
Smith was cognizant of the impact fitness has on his game, referring to the workload of 10 overs in the 50-over format compared to four overs in the T20 format.
“I think it is about consistency, fitness has a lot to do with that also playing in this format, generally international cricket is not easy so I think generally it is to be consistent, in T20 you have just four overs, here you have 10 so you have to be fit and you also have to be consistent especially playing against India team that has the top batters in the world,” he pointed out.
