Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 06, 2014 Sports
Colin E. H. Croft
Searching questions should be asked of both West Indies teams – men and women – about demitting the competition at ICC World T-20 Championship 2014 in Bangladesh at the semi-finals stages.
I feel especially for West Indies women’s team. Captain Merissa Aguilleira and her ladies fought down to the wire, deserving better that losing in the semi-finals. They played generally good cricket.
Somehow they cannot seem to get over their great nemesis – Australia women – try as they might. But it also goes to show that no team should take any other team for granted.
Had West Indies women beaten lightly-regarded India women in their final Group B game, and topped that group, then they would not have had to play Australia women at all in that semi-final, but would have played South Africa women instead, whom they were much more likely to beat!
England women, who now find themselves in today’s final, should have been West Indies women’s biggest stumbling block in Group B, but West Indies women beat them by a confidence-boosting nine runs!
West Indies women duly demolished Bangladesh women by a massive 36 runs, while being even more ruthless in thrashing Sri Lanka women by an eight wicket margin.
Then, when they had the opportunity to top the group by beating lowly-rated India women, West Indies women tanked badly, somehow losing, quite embarrassingly, by a mammoth nine wickets.
Why West Indies women, having already qualified for semi-finals, would have let up on the intensity when playing against India women is a question that both head coach, former West Indies opener Sherwin Campbell and captain Aguilleira should have to answer.
In competitions such as these, winning should be the only objective, regardless.
That lethargy backfired big time, as India women won convincingly, then Australia women won the semi-final too!
In sports, beating an opponent who had beaten you often in the past does not only take Herculean physically efforts, but also tremendous psychologically superior thought processes, sometimes even playing and thinking way outside of the standard box!
West Indies women lost to another Antipodean team, New Zealand women, in semi-finals 2010. In 2012, they lost to Australia women, a team that always gives them severe horrors, by 28 runs, in Sri Lanka.
Now, again, they have lost to Australia women, in Bangladesh, by the tantalizingly meagre eight runs.
Marissa Aguilleira and her team must be devastated. They had a massively good chance of, for the very first time, bringing home ICC World T-20 women’s trophy.
2016 cannot come soon enough for them!
Conversely, West Indies men’s semi-final against Sri Lanka was nothing like their final and subsequent victory of 2012, not even a faint shadow thereof.
If anything, Sri Lanka looked and acted the more confident of the two teams, even though, after that 2012 competition winning victory, West Indies should have been flying high!
Questions have to be asked too of West Indies head coach Ottis Gibson and captain Darren Sammy about the make-up of that semi-final bowling effort.
Twenty overs give no leeway whatsoever for second guesses, so whenever situations demand, changes must be instituted immediately, if not sooner!
West Indies men depended much on spinning exploits of Samuel Badri and Sunil Narine, and to a just lesser extent on left-arm pacer Krishmar Samtokie, but there were always still eight overs to cover.
So, by what yard-stick, exactly, did Andre Russell, who had already bowled two very expensive overs, costing 22 runs, before his third, which was similarly costly, 15 runs, qualify to bowl this third over; Sri Lanka’s last?
That decision made no sense at all. At 160-6, Sri Lanka had probably made 20 runs too many!
It was as if Sammy was actually scared to bowl himself.
If you doubt me, read on, please!
So Dwayne Bravo could not bowl, due to an injury, but after Santokie had had his worst day at ICC WT-20 2014, a very expensive 4-0-46-2, how could Sammy then justify using the similarly costly Russell instead of himself?
For the record, Sammy had 1-0-9-0 v India, as West Indies bowled 19.4 overs in a losing effort. He made 11.
He then bowled 1-0-6-0 when Bangladesh made 98, to lose by 73 runs. Sammy made 14 not out.
When Australia made 178, Sammy bowled 1-0-16-0, but made up with a match-winning 34 not out from 13 deliveries.
That was bettered against Pakistan with a bombastic 42 from 20 deliveries, but he did not have to bowl as Pakistan were bundled out for 82.
In the semi-final v Sri Lanka, as the 2012’s beaten finalists accrued that eventual match-winning 160-6, again Sammy did not bowl, but Chris Gayle and Russell gave away 47 needless runs from four overs.
So, overall, in five games, Sammy, captain of defending champions West Indies, and supposedly a bowling all-rounder in this team, delivered, in total – 3 overs for 31 runs – preferring to allow Russell, always possible to be slogged, to bowl many more overs than he should have.
You can make your own conclusions, as, in life, and in cricket, anything can be justified! Enjoy!
LISTEN HOW JAGDEO WILL MAKE ALL GUYANESE RICH!!!
Apr 23, 2024
Kaieteur Sports – Over the weekend, the prestigious Lusignan Golf Club played host to the highly anticipated AMCHAM Golf Tournament, drawing golf enthusiasts and professionals alike from across...Kaieteur News – Just recently, the PPC determined that it does not have the authority to vitiate a contract which was... more
By Sir Ronald Sanders Waterfalls Magazine – On April 10, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States... more
Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.
Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]