West Indian captain, Darren Sammy, wants his
team to do more in the last games against Pakistan, as the hosts bid to
restore their battered pride.
The Caribbean team lost the first three
matches to hand over an unassailable 3-0 lead to the Men in Green, Sammy
feels that his batsmen need to take more responsibility and express
themselves against the spinners, who have thus far
cast a spell that seems unbreakable for the inexperienced host batsmen.
Sammy added that the batsmen need to rotate
strike and play with a lot more authority if they are to compete. The
main reasons for the slump for the batsmen has been their inability to
score runs at a fast run rate and post a big enough
total, which the bowlers could defend at ease.
"Rotating the strike is one area we have to
get better at", Sammy said. "If we rotate the strike that upsets the
rhythm of the Pakistan bowlers and that would lead to us posting bigger,
match-winning totals. The 'dot ball' percentage
has been high and we need to combat the opposition bowlers. One of our
major problems has been that we have not been putting enough runs on the
board”.
Sammy also stated that as a batting unit we
hit a lot of boundaries, but we have to get better at ticking over the
strike, especially against the slower bowlers, who have tightened the
grip, the hosts have failed to post competitive
totals in all three games so far, struggling to score against off
spinners, Mohammad Hafeez, and, Saeed Ajmal in particular.
The spinners have wrestled total control over
the batsmen, even Mohammad Hafeez, who is not rated as a front line
spinner, has been successful. He has proven to be one of the toughest
bowlers to get away especially in the first two
matches at St.Lucia.
"I can't fault the bowlers", Sammy said. "They
have been superb for us and brought us close to a victory in the last
match. I believe if we put the runs on the board, the bowlers will do
the job for us. We are looking to create winning
opportunities and when we do that we have to grab it with both hands".
The West Indians have been bolstered by the
return of experienced batsman, Ramnaresh Sarwan, who was side-lined
after a disappointing performance in the World Cup where the Caribbean
winners of the first two editions of the premier
tournament were sent packing by Pakistan in the quarter final stage.
Even in that game the West Indian batting collapsed against the Pakistani spin trio of Shahid Afridi, Mohammad Hafeez and Saeed Ajmal, who were on top of their game.
Nothing much has changed since then, and the
West Indian cricket fans that have been let down time and again in the
last few years hope that their team buckles down and defeats the Men in Green in the last two games.
Another worry for the hosts is the inability
of the bowlers to take wickets, other than Devendra Bishoo and pace man
Ravi Rampaul, none of the bowlers have threatened Pakistani batsmen.
The leader of the attack, Kemar Roach, has not
taken a single wicket yet in the series. He was also wicket-less in the
quarter final.
Sammy himself has looked very ordinary with
the ball, as the usually fragile Pakistan batting, coasted to wins in
the first two matches. The captain has to lead from the front and it
remains to be seen if he has that in him.
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