http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shahid-Afridi-c2482 happy with series win over West Indies, as Darren Sammy looks at positives
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760 by a narrow win in the third match of the five match series, which gave them an unassailable 3-0 lead against the hosts.
The Men in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Green-c60723 won the match played at the Kensington Oval at Barbados by 3 wickets. However, the victory was not as straightforward as the first two games where they were resounding winners.
He added that the team management would take the batsmen to task for their reckless approach, which saw them lose three wickets for 13 runs in the first four overs of their run chase and looked set for an embarrassing loss when Umar Akmal
departed with the score at 40, leaving the team in a deep hole.
"There are still some problems, and I'm sure the management and coaches will come at us hard in the meetings", Afridi said with a chuckle. "The way the boys delivered in the series was good. The batsmen need to spend some time [in the middle].
We all know we made mistakes".
However, Pakistan's batting did fairly well in the first two matches that were played in the more batting friendly conditions at Gros Islet at St.Lucia where they were set a straightforward chase of 220 and 221 runs.
In the first match the Cornered Tigers won by 8 wickets, while in the second match they romped home by 7 wickets on the back of a fine century by opening batsman Ahmed Shehzad.
On the other hand, the hosts have a lot of worries to deal with. The team that had started the series in what the management claimed was a rebuilding effort, after three of their senior-most players were left out have been extremely ordinary
with both bat and ball. The bowlers only made an impact in the third game at Kensington.
Besides that in each of the first two games their batsmen were unable to build on to their starts in each of the first three games.
In the third match, the middle and lower order collapsed losing the last six wickets for only 21 runs.
In the third game the West Indians were well served by the pair of, seamer Ravi Rampaul, and leg spinner, Devendra Bishoo, who took 7 wickets between them yet the low score posted by the batsmen spelt doom for the team.
At the post match interaction with the media, the West Indian captain, Darren Sammy, stated that the senior players in the team needed to take more responsibility and make their presence felt out in the middle.
"We as a batting unit, me included, have to take more responsibility like Bishoo does with the ball", their captain stated. "It's about getting the formula right; we have had good starts but we haven't capitalized on it. The way forward
is to gain experience”.
He added that the squad that took part in the first three matches of the series is not short on talent, the only thing that they needed was to play with more consistency.
Sammy hoped that the selectors stick to the players that were chosen in the initial part of the series. The panel is set to meet for the final two matches of the series and it is not yet known if they would include any of the senior players
that were discarded for the first part of the series.
Cricketing pundits in the region are calling for the inclusion of the trio of Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, and, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shivnarine-Chanderpaul-c90073, who were all axed after the World Cup debacle.
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