NEW DELHI – West Indies assistant coach Stuart Williams believes the Caribbean side need to treat Friday’s fourth One-Day International like a final, if they are to find their edge and beat India in the series.
West Indies won the opening game by 124 runs last Wednesday in Kochi but went down by 48 runs on Saturday here at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium.
Adverse weather from a dangerous cyclone forced the cancellation of the third ODI carded for Visakhapatnam on Tuesday and Williams said with the series reduced to four matches, it was important West Indies placed maximum emphasis on the next game.
“The fourth game you’ve got to play like a final. If you want to win the World Cup, these are the games that we have to win and first of all we would like to win this fourth game,” said Williams.
“We want to keep that self-belief – we’re stressing on keeping that self-belief – and play this game like a final.”
The fourth game is set for Dharmasala with the fifth scheduled for Kolkata next Monday.
West Indies have not won a one-day series in India in a decade but Williams said his side’s aim was to break this trend.
“Obviously we want to win the series. There are some points [to be had] in terms of the ranking so we want to win the series, we came here to win the series,” he stressed.
“No disrespect to India – they are number one – but we want to win against these good teams so we can be in good stead for the World Cup.
“As a unit, both batting and bowling, we’re doing well. We’ve exceeded our expectations. A lot of people thought India would have just come and roll over us but we are showing that we have some fight in us and we’re up for the challenge.”
In the last ODI, West Indies seemed en route to victory in pursuit of 264 set by India but suffered a now familiar batting collapse to be bowled out for 215 runs.
Williams said despite this performance, he believed West Indies were still playing good cricket and simply needed to re-focus.
“The guys are batting well, bowling well and fielding well, it’s just to get everything [together]. There was a little blip in the second game but we will get it back together,” he said.
“We as a management group are charged with getting the guys together and we will try and keep them together as much as possible.” (PR)
