MUMBAI, India, CMC – West Indies captain Darren Sammy has written off Sunday’s defeat to Afghanistan as a “blip” and says his side are now focussed on winning their next two games and lifting the Twenty20 World Cup.
In shock result, the previously unbeaten Group 1 leaders crashed to a six-run loss to minnows Afghanistan at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur.
Chasing a mediocre 124, West Indies suffered a batting meltdown and were restricted to 117 for eight.
“We have to leave this game in Nagpur. There’s a new focus now which is the semi-finals, this is the first step and we just have to be ready for whoever we face in Mumbai,” Sammy said. “The only things on our minds was to win. That’s why we play cricket games. We wanted to come out of this group winning four out of four. Looking at the history of the tournament, no team has done it undefeated.
“We’ll leave this game here and see it as the blip in the tournament. Now we have two knockouts to play. Two more steps. The semi-finals in Mumbai – take that step – and then Kolkata here we come.”
Sammy said West Indies struggled because they failed to bat in partnerships as they had done in previous games.
Dwayne Bravo, who top-scored with 28, staged the best stand of the tournament when he put on 41 for the fourth wicket with Denesh Ramdin who got 18.
“We didn’t take it lightly. It was a side we were supposed to beat and we just didn’t do that but the main objective coming out of the Super 10 was to qualify for the semis and that we did,” Sammy pointed out.
“We bowled first and restricted them to 124 and it’s a total we should gave got. We just kept losing wickets all throughout the innings. We didn’t have one partnership. One partnership of 50-plus is what would have won us the game. We just didn’t bat that well throughout the innings.”
He added: “At the end of the day, we didn’t play smart enough. We back ourselves [usually]. The games we have won, every match somebody has taken responsibility to bat through … this time nobody did it, nobody took responsibility. They just left it for the next man to come.”
West Indies still finished top of Group 1 courtesy of a superior net run rate to England who also finished on six points.
The Caribbean side will now face a difficult assignment when they take on hosts and tournament favourites India here on Thursday.
