ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – Captain Rovman Powell believes West Indies are in “a good space” as they head into today’s pivotal third Twenty20 International against England, but said there was still room for improvement in the batting department.
The hosts cruised to a 2-0 lead in the five-match series with a ten-run win in the second T20I at the National Cricket Stadium here Thursday, to follow up their four-wicket victory in last Tuesday’s opener at Kensington Oval in Barbados.
Despite the two wins, Powell said West Indies had been guilty of losing wickets in clusters, and needed to correct this flaw.
“There are still some areas we still need to work on as a team and we’re trying our best to do that but I think we’re in a good space,” Powell said.
“[I would] just [like to see] batters batting for longer periods. Like today (Thursday], we found ourselves four down quickly.
“Last game there was a period where we [lost] four wickets [quickly] again, so it’s always us doing that rebuilding.
“We’re trying to get our batting template right and also trying to see which combinations work.”
West Indies raced to 43 without loss before losing four wickets for 11 runs in 16 deliveries to crash to 54 for four in the ninth over.
However, opener Brandon King struck an unbeaten 82 off 52 deliveries while Powell lashed exactly 50 off 28 balls, the pair putting on 80 for the fifth wicket to get West Indies up to 176 for seven off their 20 overs.
Powell set the tone particularly in the 16th over bowled by left-arm pacer Sam Curran, plundering 30 runs with four sixes as the home side gathered 108 runs from the last nine overs.
“After finding ourselves in a bit of problems in the middle overs, I think myself and Brandon played really well to give us a total to fight [with],” he said.
“Sometimes as a batter you look for that over. After being pegged down by the leg-spinners then when pace comes on you then say that maybe this is the opportunity for you as a batter to cash in.
“One hundred and seventy [was] a bonus, to be honest. I was batting with Brandon and after 10, 12 overs I was saying to Brandon ‘let’s see if we can squeeze 150 and give our bowlers something to bowl at’. “Fortunately for us, things went well and we got in excess of 170.”
Powell was quick to underscore the importance of the side’s power-hitting.
“The world know that we as Caribbean batters are power hitters so we try to keep working at our power game to see if we can be a touch better than the world in terms of our power game because they’re a lot better than us in getting singles,” he pointed out.
“So it’s us always working on our strengths in trying to hit sixes but we have to try and mix it with a little bit of smarts and try to bat the spinners properly.”
The third T20 International bowls off at 1:30 pm.
