…  admits inconsistencies cost WI opener 

By Clifton Ross 

FOLLOWING a high-scoring opening match of the T20 series, West Indies captain Kieron Pollard said the Caribbean cricketers are here for the battle and will be looking to square the series today. 

The first of 3 battles went to the Black Caps, who managed to survive Pollard’s blitzkrieg to secure what in the end was a relatively convincing 5-wicket win.

The Windies skipper, fresh off his brilliant form from this summer when he dazzled both the CPL and IPL, clobbered one of his fastest T20 fifties; 75 from 37 balls with just 4 fours but 8 massive sixes.

The innings was however a losing one, after all-rounders James Neesham and future skipper for the 3rd T20, Mitchell Santner, carried their bats to the end with knocks of 48 and 31.

Speaking with the media during the post-match press conference, Pollard said he was first of all happy to be back playing international cricket in the presence of fans, admitting that inconsistencies were the Windies’ downfall.

“I thought it was an entertaining game of cricket especially for the general public, It’s something they haven’t gotten for a long time. In terms of the disciplines, in terms of our bowling it was a bit erratic, a bit inconsistent and in international cricket if you’re bowling so many no-balls and you’re so inconsistent with your execution, you’ll end up on the losing side,” Pollard highlighted.

Although rain played a role as the result was via Duckworth/Lewis method, it was a pretty even match as both sides sought to shrug off any international rust and Pollard admitted that his team needed to keep their foot on the gas.

“You want to get a couple wickets and put them on the back-foot as we did, but we weren’t disciplined enough to stay in the game a bit longer because it’s easy going at 12/13 comfortably, but when it’s crunch time sometimes the pressure tends to take the better of you and in the end a couple less boundaries we would have been right in the game,”. he said.

Despite mauling the Kiwi attack in his unbeaten knock, Windies skipper was peppered by the likes of pacer and Match MVP Lockie Ferguson, who ended with sterling figures of 5-21 from 4 overs.

Responding to his time in the middle and the battle against the New Zealand pacers, the burly Trinidadian humorously said that his ribs were good and he was in Kiwi land for the long haul.

“The ribs are fine, you guys battered and bruised me but I’m here for the fight. He (Lockie) bowled pretty well today; he bowled a magnificent spell which put us on the back-foot after we got off to a flyer. Losing couple wickets in that momentum wasn’t something we were looking for at that time,” admitted the Windies captain.

Pollard nevertheless outlined that plans for today’s match will focus more on discipline and consistency with plans to even up the outcome and force a best-of-3 series.

Meanwhile, man-of-the-match Ferguson told the media that his team was also a bit rusty as cricketers worldwide have now begun to experience some sense of normalcy inside these various bubbles.

The Kiwi speedster further stated that the home team will need to revisit some plans and review their areas of concern going forward; especially with today’s match being a day game on a different ground.