Everyone expects West Indies to do infinitely better in T-20’s against Pakistan this weekend at Arnos Vale, St. Vincent, than in the 50-overs games.
Not only should West Indies play with more fervor, they must. After all, the home team are proud defending World Champions in the game’s shortest format!
Having lost the 50-overs series to Pakistan, 3-1, West Indies’ pride and performance must come through to beat the excellent tourists. Expect mercurial cricket from both teams!
As I mentioned before they started their tour here, all world teams must always beware of Pakistan!
Encouragingly, West Indies has not lost a T-20 game since excitingly winning ICC WT-20 in Sri Lanka last year. Hopefully, that knowledge will bring them through, but it will not be easy at all!
Also, as a final preparation preamble for inaugural Caribbean Premier League, franchised and fringe players will want to demonstrate that they actually deserve their individual selective statuses!
Realistically, as aptly shown over the last several months, in Champions Trophy 2013, then in the series featuring India and Sri Lanka, and now also in this very recently concluded series v Pakistan, West Indies team personnel are easily more adaptable and effective in T-20’s than in any other form of the game!
Why that is so is obviously quite debatable, but that is simply pure fact!
Disappointingly, West Indies have really struggled to come to terms with the attitude and fortitude required for longevity at the crease and focus required over 100 overs of a normal One-Day International!
Ironically, England, where T-20 cricket was initially encouraged and popularized, if not altogether invented, but whose major players do not fully engage as often or as extensively as other teams’ personnel in T-20 cricket, is showing such longevity and effectiveness in Tests v Australia.
England seems unbeatable!
Conversely, Australia, already 2-0 down in that five-Test series, like West Indies, is also suffering quite badly from its deluge of 20-overs cricket!
If Australia’s batsmen do not up their game considerably, immediately re-adjusting thinking and batting for lengthy periods at the crease, they could really lose 5-0!
International Cricket Council has openly suggested that its premier tournament, the one they consider a true test, at least until the real Test Championship takes shape in two years, is the 50-overs World Cup.
West Indian supporters, though, recognizing their players’ relative abilities, aptitude and attitudes, have grudgingly come to understand, appreciate and accept too, that our representatives’ forte is T-20 cricket!
Reviewing the recent 50-overs series, adaptable Pakistan, especially its much admired and touted captain, Misbah-Ul-Haq, has been quite special in that last 50-overs series. They played so very well!
Misbah has, justifiably, been named “Man of the Series,” and has been so impressive that he has also been incorporated in CT-20 2013 for the team based in St. Lucia, “The Zouks.”
Not bad for a player whose real strength is his eternal presence at the crease, more eking out runs over time than blasting boundaries helter skelter. Misbah has shown great adaptability in the 50-overs series.
That Marlon Samuels scored a century in that 2nd game at Beasejour, ODI #4, pleased me personally, as most would know that I consider him the best West Indies batsman presently playing.
Unfortunately for him and team, and West Indies supporters, that was not enough to even produce a win!
More disappointingly is that in five games v Pakistan, West Indian batsmen scored only two fifties – Darren Bravo, 54 in ODI # 2, and Lendyl Simmons, 75 in ODI # 3 – to go with Samuels’ losing effort of 106 no.
West Indies batting, overall, was abysmal, with Kieron Pollard and Devon Smith the worst failures. Pollard made 33 runs in three games, while Smith, whose continued presence is quite confusing, made 15 in two!
On the other hand, Pakistan scored nine half centuries in the series; Shahid Afridi, Nazir Jamshed, Umar Akmal, Mohammed Haffeez and Ahmed Shehzad each scoring one, Misbah alone scoring four!
Misbah might have been named “Man of the Series”, but in no way was Pakistan a one-man team!
Except for Afridi’s stunning 7-12 when West Indies were bowled out for 98 in ODI # 1, no Pakistani bowler had more than three wickets in any other innings, thus indicating a team-focused bowling performance.
West Indies bowlers Jason Holder had 4-14, ODI # 1, and Sunil Narine 4-26, ODI # 2. Captain Dwayne Bravo, three times, had two wickets, and Kemar Roach, once. In the last game Tino Best had three wickets.
But Bravo as bowler was ineffective, and so expensive, his 29.5 overs costing 201 runs, for seven wickets; economy rate (RPO) 6.8 and avg. 28.7. His use of normally more frugal Darren Sammy was quite poor.
Captains must be flexible for momentous decisions, not playing from a paper plan, as was aptly displayed by Pakistan. Misbah changed his bowlers around admirably when, at times, he found them under par!
Anyway, with Chris Gayle returning to the T-20 team, and his recent failures, expect him to fire. Also, expect the enterprising Pakistanis, perhaps Afridi, to do similarly too. Enjoy!
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AllU DOHREADYET!Stop drinking rum and redbull be more innovative in terms of how the game is played. changed payment criteria salaries should be paid to them based on wins, catches, wickets, runs etc. see how hard they’ll work then.