West Indies will lock horns with India in the second ODI on Sunday, July 24. The first ODI between both sides went down to the last ball and it proved to be an absolute nailbiter with India winning by three runs.
However, West Indies will be quietly satisfied with the way their bowlers and lower order performed in the first match.
West Indies’ fighting effort roused the Port of Spain crowd and captain Nicholas Pooran so much that he felt that the result was “like a win” for his side, especially after their crushing 3-0 defeat at the hands of Bangladesh at the Providence earlier this month.
“It definitely feels like a win for us,” Pooran told the host broadcaster at the post-match presentation. “Bitter-sweet [one], but yes we keep speaking about batting 50 overs and today we batted 50 overs and made 300-plus. It is difficult to lose but we will take this one.”
“Obviously, as a group we are rebuilding and trying to figure out ODI cricket and coming up against the top teams in the world. Today, we did justice to our talent and yeah and just looking forward to the other games. Hopefully, we can go from strength to strength.”
A target of 309 looked beyond West Indies’ reach at various points, but fifties from a fit-again Kyle Mayers (75) and Brandon King (54) and cameos from Pooran (25), Hosein (32*) and Romario Shepherd (39*) enabled them to drag the chase down to the last ball.
Although West Indies just fell short in the end, Pooran insisted that West Indies always had the belief that they could overhaul the target.
“Yes definitely [had the belief], we need to believe in each other and not only in ourselves,” Pooran said.
“We’re trying to get closer as a unit, trying to develop something here that could be special eventually. And I keep telling everyone that this is our story and this is our journey and it’s going to have a lot of challenges. But I’m just happy that we’re going forward in the right direction.”
Meanwhile, In an interview with Sportkeeda, West indies batting Coach share his thoughts about complaints about the poor quality of the pitches in Guyana after Bangladesh won the recently concluded ODI series 3-0.
“We saw an improvement in our performance in the third ODI against Bangladesh, where Keacy Carty and Pooran stitched together a good partnership. Both of them were able to grow from the information – Carty who observed from outside and Pooran who was in the playing XI throughout the series and learnt from his mistakes. That’s the kind of application we want more from our players.” said West Indies batting coach Monty Desai
“I’ve already taken a look at the Queen’s Park Oval pitches and they look good. Presently we have 9.30 a.m. starts in the West Indies and nine out of 10 times, the team winning the toss decides to field first. Let’s see how that unfolds.” he added
West Indies’ ODI slump emanates from their inability to play out fifty overs. To put things into perspective, the former world champions have completed their full quota of overs on just six occasions since the 2019 World Cup, losing nine of their last 13 ODI series in the process.
“In a way, we want to embrace the situation of batting first more often. Only then can we grow. I keep talking about ’one-ball battles’, but it’s more about the mind winning those battles. If we’re willing to take up the challenge, I’m sure we’ll find answers for the same.” he further added
“Some of the players are trying to learn from others who’ve found success and all of them are trying to apply their learning to the training sessions. I wouldn’t say the template is complete, but I can certainly vouch that our players are hung” Monty Desai concluded.