'One of the things we are talking about as a batting group is intent to score' - Daren Sammy opens up on roadmap ahead with ODI World Cup in focus
Daren Sammy urged the West Indian batters to show more intent to score runs ahead of their upcoming ODI World Cup fixture against Nepal on Thursday.
Daren Sammy was assigned the role of West Indies' white-ball coach in May. Under his tutelage, the West Indies have won four ODIs and are yet to taste defeat. It has to be taken into account that three out of the four matches were played against the UAE, while the most recent victory came in their opening game of the ICC World Cup Qualifiers against the USA.
Captain Shai Hope (54 off 60) and Johnson Charles (66 off 80) laid the platform with a 115-run partnership after West Indies were in a spot of bother at 14/2 inside six overs after being sent into bat by the USA. Later on, Nicholas Pooran, Roston Chase, and Jason Holder played important knocks to take West Indies to 297. Eventually, the two-time ODI World Cup winners managed to beat the USA by 39 runs.
Sammy mentioned how he has been trying to tell his batters to show more intent to score runs. He admitted that he wasn't entirely happy with how the batters played against the USA.
"We don't have say in how the toss goes, but whenever we bat, that new ball poses a challenge," Sammy told CWI media.
"You've got to make sure that the opposition don't get too much ahead when that new ball comes. I thought we could have had more intent because that's one of the things we are talking about as a batting group – intent to score. And when I say intent to score, it's not looking for boundaries but looking for scoring opportunities and when you do that, you could score off good balls and get rotation of strike going.
You will see improvement in days to come: Daren Sammy
Daren Sammy spoke about the catches that went down, and how the reoccurrence of the same could hurt them in future matches.
"Again, it's a work in progress and we have to bowl well and keep creating opportunities. We dropped a couple of catches and that could affect us in the bigger scheme of things. But I'm quite happy with the way we're going; the last six games that we have played we've taken steps in trying to play the brand of cricket we want to move forward with it. Again, it's sticking to our guns, sticking to the plans that we have, and believing and committing to the execution."
The former two-time T20 World Cup-winning captain was hopeful that the team will soon get accustomed to the brand of cricket that he wants them to play.
"Yeah the guys have prepared well and they are hitting lots of balls and they understand the direction the team wants to go in as a batting group. It is early doors, but the fact that mindset is getting towards what we want to do as a team I believe that you will see improvement in days to come."
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