ADMEDABAD, India (CMC) – West Indies captain Darren Sammy has praised the fighting spirit of his side after they twice rebounded from difficult situations to win the third One-Day International against India on Monday. Needing to win to stay alive in the five-match series after losing the first two matches, West Indies successfully defended their respectable score of 260 for five, to win by 16 runs.
“It was a good fightback from the boys. We needed to win to stay alive in the series,” Sammy said.
“The way we batted till the end (was admirable). And (later) Ravi (Rampaul) (contributed) with the spell. Kemar (Roach), Marlon (Samuels) continued to bowl well; and debutant (Sunil) Narine too – it was a team effort.
“We stuck to it. (Rohit_Sharma (95) again tried to take it away from us but we stuck to it till the end and we won.”
Sammy was responsible for helping West Indies post a score which they could successfully bowl at.
With the Windies languishing at 181 for five in the 45th over, he slammed a stroke-filled unbeaten 41 from 17 balls in an up tempo 79-run, unbroken sixth-wicket stand with Andre Russell whose equally pulsating 40 required just 18 balls.
“I said at the toss that anything around 260 would be good,” Sammy explained.
“That’s what the team has always asked for – to have (Kieron) Pollard, myself and Russell (to score runs) in the last ten overs and today it worked out well for us.
“But we still had to go out there and defend those runs and Ravi started us off with two early wickets which was brilliant.”