Georgetown – West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran alluded to “frustrating times” for his side’s batsmen in the wake of the latest One-day International defeat to Bangladesh, but he said they will continue to work diligently to solve the crisis.
The Windies tasted their 10th defeat on the trot to the Bangladeshis when they stumbled to nine-wicket thrashing in the second ODI on Wednesday at the Guyana National Stadium, the result coming on the heels of last Sunday’s six-wicket loss.
In both matches, the batting of the Caribbean side proved abysmal with totals of 149 and 108 – the latter their second lowest against the Tigers.
Pooran conceded the period was a difficult one for the batting group, but he backed them to remain focussed on solutions.
“At the moment, it’s frustrating times for us as a batting group in ODI cricket, but we’re together, we’re a family, and we’re going to figure it out soon,” a downbeat Pooran said.
“We need to bat properly – 100 per cent. For us to win games, we need to put something respectable in terms of totals and again, it’s for us to find ways – just keep finding ways.
“We’re a young team, we’re playing together, (but) we hardly play ODI cricket these days. The more games we play, the more we’ll understand each other and how to go about it.”
Both matches were played on fresh pitches, resulting from the time they spent covered because of the rainy conditions in the South American nation in recent weeks.
On both occasions, the West Indies’ batsmen struggled after being asked to bat first, and Pooran said the conditions early in the morning had been difficult for run-scoring.
“It’s difficult to say (what a par score is) because the pitch gets better the longer the innings goes ahead,” he said.
“This is the fifth time now we’ve batted first in the Caribbean in the last two series, and we haven’t been able to score (a big total), so it’s definitely a challenge batting early up, especially losing the toss again.”
He added: “The batsmen, we spoke (before the match) about different ways to score. You saw guys trying to sweep (on Wednesday), (and) reverse sweep and it didn’t come off.
“We asked guys to keep coming with different plans, but at the moment, we’re still figuring it out, we’re a young group. We’re going to stick together and try our best.”
The year has been a difficult for West Indies in the ODI format, losing 10 of the 14 matches played.
They lost both series staged in the Caribbean after going down 2-1 to minnows Ireland last January in Jamaica.
Reflecting on the Ireland series, where they also lost every toss and were forced to bat first, Pooran said it was obvious the toss was crucial in such conditions.
“The toss plays a big factor,” the Trinidadian, presiding over his first ODI series as full-time captain, said. “Whoever wins the toss, wins 75 per cent (of the games) in the Caribbean with 9:30 a.m. (starts)
“Again, it’s not about making excuses, but accepting the challenges and come out here and keep fighting as a team.”
He said: “Everyone would question us and challenge us, but the group of guys I have there in the dressing room are there fighting, they’re racking their brains to get ideas for us, and try to be better as a cricket team.
“We’re trying our best and eventually I hope we figure it out.”
(CMC)
