Following the West Indies’ 2-3 series loss to South Africa, head coach Phil Simmons has once again singled out the batting department as an area of concern while crediting the bowlers for their improvement throughout the series.
Simmons made these comments on the sidelines of the fifth T20I on Saturday where West Indies surrendered the series by 25 runs.
“I think on the batting side we’ve let ourselves down every game so far except the first game where we chased down the runs in 15 overs,” Simmons summed up the series.
He added, “So it’s something we’ve got to look at and make sure that we, especially overs seven to 14 that we are getting we are getting better at it and learning how to deal with it in order to get proper scores.”
Evin Lewis has been the best batsman in the series for the hosts with 178 runs at a strike rate of 160 which came along with two half centuries. However, Kieron Pollard was the only other batsman to get to a half century.
Nicholas Pooran scored 71 runs from four innings while Chris Gayle managed just 56. Shimron Hetmyer tallied 57 runs in his three innings while Lendl Simmons chalked up 72 runs. Andre Russell had five innings but could only muster 62 runs.
When asked about what changes need to be done, Simmons responded, “I think it’s definitely a tactical and technical change. You’ve got to be able to assess what situation you’re in and from that situation you’ve got to be able to formulate a plan to score the runs in that section so tactically we’ve been lacking.”
Simmons called for the batsmen to be a bit more aware of the situation and be smarter in the way they go about their innings. He indicated that while they have been good capitalizing on the opening phase of the innings, there must be a better middle period to set up a better finish.
Nevertheless, the head coach was pleased with the efforts in the other departments.
He admitted, “I think from a bowling point of view and fielding it’s been excellent, on that wicket to keep teams to 160 has been brilliant.”
Leading from the front with the ball was Dwayne Bravo, who, despite being 37-years-old, bagged 10 wickets with a career-best of 4-19 in the series. Along with Bravo, Obed McCoy was the most consistent bowler in the side with nine wickets as well as a career-best figure of 4-22.
Simmons called McCoy’s performances as one of the biggest take away from the series.
“I think the biggest positive we could take from this series is Obed McCoy and the way he has bowled.
“He has come on from the last series and improved all through this series and just the bowling in general. I think we’ve been excellent with the ball and we’ve done better and better in the powerplay and back end,” he said.
West Indies started the series ranking 10th but managed to move up two places.
