Pollard: Adjustment at fault, not pitches

Pitches in the Gulf state have not been at fault for West Indies’ underwhelming efforts with the bat in the ongoing Twenty20 World Cup.

Captain Kieron Pollard on Wednesday described the strips as “good cricketing wickets” but said the challenge for West Indies – and other sides in the tournament – was making quick assessments of conditions and equally swift adjustments.

“When you look at it sometimes you want the best of both worlds,” he pointed out ahead of Thursday’s critical fixture against Sri Lanka.

“The conditions in all honesty, some of the pitches have been good and some have been wickets or pitches where there’s something in it for the bowlers and the batters, and we just as batters need to adjust.

“Because of the nature sometimes of T20 cricket, you don’t have the time to adjust. Or by the time you take to adjust, X-amount of overs are gone and you might have to take a chance and then when you decide to take a chance you get out.

“So I just think it’s a matter of assessing it as quickly as possible and trying to play the right shots as quickly as possible.

“So the pitches have not been outrageously bad. It has been good cricketing wickets, but it has been challenging.”

West Indies were bundled out for an embarrassing 55 in their opening game which they lost by six wickets to England in Dubai, and only mustered 143 for eight against South Africa at the same venue to go down by eight wickets.

Against Bangladesh in Sharjah, they gathered 142 for seven again batting first but managed to defend the total, eking out a three-run win in the last over. 

Overall in the tournament, there have been only eight totals over 170 and one over 200, while four totals have fallen below 100.

No West Indies batsman has managed an aggregate of over 70 from three innings.

Pollard, who has watched his batting juggernaut misfire, said West Indies had not been pleased with their totals and were striving for better performances in their remaining two games

“It’s not only us as a team that has struggled but different players, world-class players around the entire World Cup have struggled, as well,” Pollard asserted.

“But they have just found the rhythm to actually compound everything together and get a respectable total, whereas from our point of view, we haven’t been able to cross that 143 barrier, and then sometimes that’s just not enough at that point in time.

“Again, it’s just a mixture of different things and assessment and understanding what is needed at that point in time, and the teams that have done well have assessed it pretty nicely and they’re able to post big totals, or if they’re chasing a small total sometimes it’s easier to chase a smaller total and post a smaller total.”

He added: “It’s a collective thing and as I said, as a team, we tried to work it out with our individual talent and tried to get persons in the right places to get that job done. 

“We haven’t done it but 142 in the last game was good enough. We were able to get over the line, which is a win. Are we entirely happy? Obviously not, but we’ll continue to work hard and try to overcome whatever is in front of us.”

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