Antigua, June 11: Despite losing a closely fought One-Day International at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium by three wickets to India, which also cost the West Indies the five-match series, captain Darren Sammy was full of appreciation for his team. In a post-match media interaction, Sammy spoke about the series so far and his team.
Excerpts from the press interaction:
On the match
I see it as one that got away. The way [Andre] Russell showed character that gave us the momentum in the game and [helped] put up a fighting total on board. He and Carlton [Baugh] built a good partnership and when guys came in [at] lunch time we were confident. We took that momentum and we got early wickets but we just didn’t find the killer instinct.
On the batting and the lower-order flourishing
That’s been happening in the last three Test series as well. We know where we are falling short. We got to work on it. Can’t fault the effort of the guys, they showed a lot of character, that catch [Lendl] Simmons took, everybody believed we could win but we just lacked that finishing touch.
On whether he felt a little extra effort was needed with the ball from Russell and Kemar Roach
Kemar is one of our strike bowlers. He has been trying, has done a good job last couple of months and today we just didn’t have the killer instinct.
On the wicket
The track turned out to be a good wicket. It had more for the batsmen but if you put the ball in the right places you could reap rewards - like you see with both spinners. We are looking forward to Monday [fourth ODI] and like the Pakistan series, we look to win the [last] two.
