FLORENCE HALL:THE WEST Indies were aiming at getting psychological advantage over India in their ICC WI Cricket World Cup warm-up mind game at the newly-constructed multi-purpose stadium in Trelawny yesterday.
Instead, they put in a mind-blowing performance to be blown away for 85 in 25.5 overs, en route to an extraordinarily easy nine-wicket defeat after India cruised to 86 for one off 18.3 overs.
"Very disappointing," was how skipper Brian Lara termed the loss. "I'm not happy and I don't think anyone in the dressing room is happy at all.
"You can say that we got the bad game out but I just think it's very chronic, the way we collapsed on so many occasions so it's something we've got to talk about," he added.
The latter reference applied to the team's fluctuating habits, which Lara calls 'unfortunate'.
"I'd prefer to have a team that does not have those sort of performances in it and it's unfortunate that this happens."
A spectacle
They play their opening match next Tuesday against Pakistan, hoping to rise from the fall that shocked the over 4,000 spectators who had travelled from near and far to witness what appeared a spectacle given both teams' ambitions to beat the other ahead of an impending second round showdown.
Some amount of tinkering was done with the batting order with in-form Samuels, who hit an even, hundred in the previous warm-up match against Kenya, relegated from four to eight and youngsters Kieron Pollard and Denesh Ramdin promoted. But the Windies skipper says that should not have mattered.
"No but (with) Samuels going down, Lara batted at four, it's not like it's a less effective batting order," Lara reasoned. "The likes of Pollard (Kieron) and Ramdin (Denesh), they're going to be asked a few questions throughout the tournament and they need the opportunity to bat. They did not use the opportunity in this particular match, but Marlon Samuels batting at number eight or nine in the tournament, you know that"s not going to happen.
"But it doesn't take away from the fact that we're capable of performances like this and we need to eradicate it."
- A.B.
