Sammy blames defeat on playing a lot of dot balls
West Indies skipper Darren Sammy blamed the 16-run defeat against India in the lone Twenty20 match on playing too many dot balls.
- Press Trust of India
- Updated: June 04, 2011 11:33 PM IST
West Indies skipper Darren Sammy blamed the 16-run defeat against India in the lone Twenty20 match on playing too many dot balls.
The hosts, while chasing 160 to win, did not score off 50 balls, which amounts to 40 per cent of the balls at their disposal.
"Dot balls have been plaguing us and we left it a little too late in the end. But with people like Barnwell, we know we can chase big Twenty20 totals. The batsmen should play the spinners better come Monday," Sammy said.
The skipper also rued that they let India off the hook after claiming four early wickets. "We stuck at it to start with but we let them get 20 runs too many. We need to go back to the drawing board. I was a little surprised by the pitch, it was a good decision to field but we didn't restrict them to the total we wanted," he said.
Indian batsman S Badrinath, who scored 43 runs and also put on 71 runs for the fifth wicket with Rohit Sharma (26), was adjudged Man-of-the-match.
"My form is good, and I'm happy to start the tour well. The track was a little similar to what we have back in India, so that helped. We initially thought of getting close to 140. It was tough to bat, and it was damp, but we played some shots in the end to get to 160," he said.
Indian skipper Suresh Raina acknowledged the good batting effort by Badrinath and Rohit as well as the splendid fielding by his side.
"We played well, the bowlers executed the plans very well. This is the best fielding side we've had in the last four to five years. Our new coach Fletcher and Trevor Penny, the fielding coach, have helped us. Badri and Rohit set it up for us," Raina said.