-Says West Indies captain Chris Gayle
By Rawle Toney
in Gros-Islet, St Lucia
West Indies captain Chris Gayle believes the dodgy-type of weather in which the third Digicel one-day international against India was played on Friday at the Beausejour Stadium in St. Lucia affected the rhythm of his batsmen and contributed to the team’s defeat.
India won the rain affected-encounter after scoring 11 runs off the final over bowled by Jerome Taylor.
They ended on 159-4 from 21.5 overs after the West Indies had posted 185-7 from 27 overs.
Speaking with Stabroek Sports after the game, Gayle said that he and his team after noticing the overcast conditions at the ground were gearing for a short game although they did not cater for the steady stoppages which resulted.
“I saw the clouds setting up and I knew it was going to be an on and off situation cause sometimes it can be this way in St Lucia.
“But like I said, that kind of actually broke our rhythm and as a batsman when you’re on the go, you want to accelerate and go fluently but then the steady stoppages could break your concentration,” he added.
Gayle himself was caught by rival captain and India’s wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni off the bowling of Ashish Nehra from the first ball after the first break for rain.
He made 27.
Rain stoppages saw India needing 194 after 27 overs initially before another downpour reduced the target to 159 from 22 overs under the Duckworth/Lewis system.
The West Indies team entered the game on a high after their comfortable victory in the second ODI in Jamaica but now trail 1-2 in the four match series and must win today’s encounter to share the spoils.
“To be honest with you I thought we were a few runs short. They got in a bit of dot balls in the latter stages of our batting.
“We were actually looking to post a total of about 200 but I thought they pulled it back well, we lost wickets at crucial times and then we had a set back with the two Bravos so it was a difficult situation at a difficult time,” Gayle noted.
Despite the defeat Gayle said he was not inclined to tinker with the batting line-up for tomorrow’s final one-day as he felt it was “just right.”
“Coming into this game I think the majority of these guys have been batting well so I don’t think we will try too much changes but if the situation occurs for a particular batsman to go in then we’ll have to look at that, but in this point in time, we are trying to stick to our line-up and get a decent total.”
