West Indies can’t afford mistakes, says Estwick

Assistant coach Roddy Estwick has urged West Indies for more consistency and intensity ahead of the pivotal third Twenty20 International against England at Kensington Oval today.

The series is delicately balanced at 1-1 after West Indies stunned the world number ones by nine wickets in last Saturday’s opener but then slipped to a one-run defeat in Sunday’s second game.

Despite the loss, however, West Indies will take comfort from their fightback, as they rallied from 98 for eight in the 16th over thanks to Akeal Hosein and Romario Shepherd, to narrowly miss out on their target of 171 at Kensington Oval.

“The boys are still in a good place. We were happy with the way Akeal and Romario came back and brought us back into the game,” Estwick said.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t quite get over the line but at [98] for eight, it just shows that there’s some fight in the team but we’ve got to become a lot more consistent. 

“We’re putting one game together then we tend to lapse and make a lot of mistakes – we dropped a few catches when we were fielding. 

“So those are areas that we have to try and improve if we’re going to be consistent. We’ve got to make sure we concentrate every game at the same intensity and have the same discipline.”

West Indies appeared headed for a heavy defeat when they collapsed to 65 for seven in the 12th over, off-spinner Moeen Ali (3-24) and leg-spinner Adil Rashid (2-24) destroying the backbone of the innings.

However, Shepherd (44 not out) put on 33 for the eighth with Fabian Allen (12) before posting a record ninth wicket stand of 72 with Akeal Hosein who blasted a stunning 16-ball unbeaten 44.

“Seventy-two in [29 balls] is very important but when you look at the overall game, we made one or two mistakes and those are the things we’ve got to focus on,” Estwick pointed out.

“We can’t continue to drop good players, we can’t afford to make mistakes in the field.

“We’ve got to assess better, our power-play has got to be better – 30-odd off six overs you’re obviously putting yourself under a little bit of pressure when you have so much power at the back end of the innings. 

“But you can’t leave it to them because then people become a bit frantic and you can lose wickets and you can lose momentum very quickly in a T20 game.”

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