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 yesterday.
Needing to win to stay alive in the five-match series after losing the first two matches, West Indies successfully defending their respectable score of 260 for five, to win by 16 runs.
“It was a good fight-back 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.”
