Did not learn from our mistakes: West Indies skipper Pooran after loss to India in fifth T20I
The series with India was a disappointing one for the Windies as they could only win one out of eight matches played across ODI and T20I formats.
Florida [US], August 8 (ANI): Following the crushing 88-run loss to India in the fifth T20I, West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran expressed disappointment with his team’s performance, saying that they failed to learn from mistakes and were not up to the challenge.
A half-century from Shreyas Iyer and a dominant show by Indian spinners helped the Men in Blue secure an 88-run win over the West Indies in the fifth and final T20I of the series at Florida on Sunday.
“We were just not good enough. We did not learn from our mistakes. We just were not up to the challenge, just did not put enough partnerships. To come up against tough teams, we need to be good in execution. Be it in the batting group or bowling group, we have a lot of catching up to do. I just hope that we as a team learn from these losses. We are building towards the World Cup and hopefully, we can do that right. (On Holder opening the batting) Obviously, King and Mayers did not play today, so we needed someone to open. Just thought of giving him an opportunity to bat higher up. We all know what he can do down the order. It (playing two spinners) is something we have to think about in the future. India has shown why they are better than us in this series,” said Pooran in a post-match presentation.
With this win, India has secured the series 4-1.
India posted a total of 188/7 in their first innings. Shreyas Iyer continued his fine form in white-ball cricket and scored another half-century, making 64 off 40 balls. Deepak Hooda also posted 38 off 25 balls. He had a 76-run stand with Iyer. After the fall of their wickets, wickets of Sanju Samson (15), Dinesh Karthik (12) came early. Hardik Pandya’s 28 off 16 balls helped India reach the 180-run mark.
Odean Smith was the pick of the West Indies bowlers, he took 3/33. Hayden Walsh, Obed McCoy and Jason Holder took one wicket each.
Chasing 189, West Indies lost wickets at regular intervals. Spinner Axar Patel (3/15) destroyed the top order while Ravi Bishnoi (4/16) and Kuldeep Yadav (3/12) took the middle order and lower order wickets. Except for Shimron Hetmyer, nobody looked like a threat to Indians. He played a knock of 56 off 35 balls and was pretty much a one-man-army. The West Indies team was bundled out for 100 runs and lost the match by 88 runs.
Axar Patel won the ‘Man of the Match’ for his brilliant 3/15. (ANI)
