DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, CMC – Captain Kieron Pollard has branded West Indies’ paltry 55 against England ysterday as “unacceptable” but has urged his embattled side to quickly put the humiliating defeat behind them.
West Indies were bundled out cheaply for 55 – their lowest ever Twenty20 World Cup total and second lowest in T20 Internationals – as they slumped to a six-wicket loss in their opening group stage game of the Twenty20 World Cup.
“It’s plain to see. Obviously we didn’t bat well. It’s disappointing to start a tournament like that, being defending champions,” Pollard told a post-match media conference.
“But having said that, [it is] something that we just need to accept. We accept it. We take full responsibility for what transpired out there and for us games like these, you try to bin it as quickly as possible and then you move on.”
He added: “I think for us, it’s very, very important that a game like this you sort of forget. You try to dig too much into it, then you might unearth some things that you don’t really want to. For us, it’s pretty simple: accept and move on.”
The reigning champions went with an experienced lineup for their opener, with the out-of-sorts Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Lendl Simmons and injury-plagued Andre Russell all included.
But the Caribbean side plunged to 44 for six at the half-stage of the innings and never recovered, only the 42-year-old Gayle making it to double figures with a run-a-ball 13.
Pollard, who made only six, said the defeat would not pressure West Indies into making hasty personnel changes.
“We thought that this is the best 11 to go out and try to win the first game for us,” he explained.
“Again not because we have lost – we have been demolished in eight-and-point-something overs – and we make 50-odd, means that there is going to be wholesale changes.
“As we tend to know, when you are not playing or sitting on the bench, your stock tends to go up a lot higher.
“For us, we just need to try and bin it and come back strong. It’s not time at the start of a tournament to think about ‘this one should play or this one shouldn’t play’. For us, we accept it and as I said, we move on.”
Pollard conceded his side’s poor start put pressure on the innings and the subsequent efforts to repair the damage had failed, after the middle order never found their footing.
But with left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein grabbing two for 24 to take some of the shine off England’s victory, Pollard said West Indies were hoping to take that positive into upcoming fixtures.
“Obviously we lost a couple wickets early up and we expected the guys just to bat a couple overs, try to knock it around and see if we can set it up for the back end,” Pollard said.
“But we kept losing wickets and hence the reason (Dwayne) Bravo went up [to number five] as you see, to bring up the right-handers just to knock it around a bit.
“Again it didn’t work today and these things happen. If he had gone out there and built a partnership and gotten 150, 160-odd, certain questions might not have been asked. He has done it before.”
He continued: “And for us, we have a plan of how we want to play this game and as I said, it didn’t come off today. We didn’t play well. We didn’t bat well.
“But the positive is the intensity that we had on the field for that 8.2 overs [of the England innings] I think was good, and young Akeal Hosein getting the opportunity and grasping it with both hands, I think we look at it and we move on.”
West Indies take on South Africa in their next game on Tuesday.
