Law sees reason for hope despite T20 trouncing

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC — Head coach Stuart Law says there is no reason to despair despite West Indies heavy defeat to Pakistan in the recent four-match Twenty20 series.

Rather, the Australian said the disappointing performance allowed him to properly gauge the quality of the squad, and believes the players simply need to be more consistent.

“All in all, it is given me a better idea of what we have and what we’re about,” Law indicated.

“There is plenty to work with there, it is not a matter of throwing in the towel or going back to scratch and starting again but players have got to start performing consistently.”

West Indies, the reigning T20 World champions, were humbled in the opening game by six wickets and also crashed to another defeat in the second game when they lost by three runs.

They won the third contest convincingly with a three-wicket victory last Saturday but then reverted to their old habits in a seven-wicket defeat in the final game.

Law said West Indies had failed to find any consistency throughout the series and played below their potential as a result.

“[We under-achieved] really, I think. All the players, we sat and spoke after the second one — the first game in Trinidad — and that was the game that we lost,” he noted.

“We were in the driver’s seat and we brought the [required run rate] down to just under a run-a-ball but unfortunately we messed that one up.

“The fightback began in the third one where Evin Lewis basically took the game on single-handedly and scored a brilliant 90. In the last one, just making poor decisions in that middle order [let us down].

“In the first game we lost wickets early and we couldn’t stem the flow and in the last game as well and we couldn’t [rotate] the strike so that was a problem.”

West Indies turn their attention to the three-match one-day tournament against Pakistan starting here tomorrow.