http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 – Cricket news
The crushing victory in the fifth and final One Day International against Pakistan has greatly pleased the West Indies captain Darren Sammy.
The all-rounder praised his team for the combined effort that they put in to haul back the Men in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Green-c60723 who had an unassailable 3-1 lead going into the final match at Guyana.
Sammy had the best match with the ball for the series; he took his first wickets in the series ending with 3 in all to break the back of Pakistan’s middle order.
The Windies shot out Pakistan for a meagre score of 139 runs and chased down the runs at a canter finishing the job without losing a wicket.
The 10-wicket drubbing avenged the loss in the ICC World Cup 2011 quarter-finals in Mirpur where the Windies suffered a 10-wicket defeat at the hands of the Men in Green.
Sammy praised his dashing opener Lendl Simmons who was firing on all cylinders throughout the series. Once again, his onslaught was pivotal in taking the West Indians through to their convincing win.
“Simmons has been great all throughout and again today he demonstrated his ability with the bat,” Sammy said after the win. “His shot-selection was superb, and he formed a very good partnership with Kirk, who also played well. It is
good to see we are getting performances like these. The players are growing and the self-belief is there.”
Sammy added that the West Indians would be hoping to carry on the momentum in the two-match Test series. He said that new players will be coming in to join the setup and the aim would be to topple Pakistan who are yet to win a Test
series in the Caribbean in more than 50 years of Test history between the two teams.
The victory in the Guyana match was set up by an impressive bowling performance by the pace ace for the hosts Ravi Rampaul, who took 4 for 45 to play the chief role in the destruction of the Pakistani batting line up that had looked
in great form in the first two matches of the series.
The positive from the series loss for Sammy is that for the first time in his short career at the helm of West Indies cricket he has won two matches on the trot. The tally excludes matches against the associate members of the International
Cricket Council.
Sammy stated that the win was a great way of restoring the belief of the supporters in a team that has gone from bad to worse in recent years. The on-field performance coupled with the off-field controversies has hit the game in the
Islands hard forcing the public away from their most beloved sport.
“[It was a] great way to end the series, we asked for a win and we got one here today,” Sammy said. “The crowd was superb and they gave us the positive vibe from the start. I want to thank the fans for coming out and showing us so
much love. We fed off that and went out and delivered in style.”
He hopes that the crowd would show up in numbers in the longest format of the game also as the hosts look to make an impression in a format they have struggled to make an impact for many years now. It remains to be seen how much of
that is achieved when the series kicks off in a week’s time.
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