WI coach Sammy: 'This loss will not dampen our spirits'
Cricket
Daren Sammy insisted that they can still win an unprecedented third men's T20 World Cup.
ST LUCIA (Web Desk) - Daren Sammy told his West Indies team to put their eight-wicket loss to England "in the garbage" and insisted that they can still win an unprecedented third men's T20 World Cup.
West Indies set England 181 to win in St Lucia - at the ground bearing Sammy's name - but only took two wickets as the defending champions cruised home with 15 balls to spare, thanks primarily to Phil Salt and Jonny Bairstow's unbroken 97-run partnership for the third wicket. Sammy said that only on a flat pitch, his team were "about 25 runs short" of a winning total.
"It's part of the game," Sammy said. "This loss will not dampen our spirits. We still believe we've got a team that could win this World Cup, and that's what I'll tell the guys inside when I speak to them: park this game, put it in the garbage. And we move forward to Barbados where we win against the USA, and then we have South Africa in Antigua on Sunday.
"No-one said it was going to be easy. There are good teams in the tournament. Today, we came up against the defending champions and they got the better of us. But that doesn't mean our tournament is over. Our destiny is in our own hands, and I feel I've got the 15, the group of men, that we believe that this tournament, we could win."
West Indies made two changes to the side that thrashed Afghanistan on Monday, reverting to the XI that beat New Zealand in Trinidad. Roston Chase and Romario Shepherd - who missed Monday's game on paternity leave - replaced Shai Hope and Obed McCoy, who took 3 for 14 against Afghanistan and was unfortunate to miss out.
"We could talk about it now in hindsight, but I've said it from day one: we have 15 potential match-winners," Sammy said. "Obed did bowl well [against Afghanistan] but if you look at what Shepherd has done for us over the last year in T20 cricket, what he brings to the team, we thought going against them, especially the potential line-up England could have and the dual rule that he brings [was the right option]."
West Indies are bottom of the nascent points table in Group 2 of the Super Eight and will almost certainly require wins against both USA and South Africa to qualify for next week's semi-finals. "We did not execute our plans well enough - a couple of chances here and there - but in a tournament, there's a game where the opposition will get the better of you," Sammy said.
"But that doesn't mean we're out of it. Now, in order to win, we've got to win all our matches and that's what we'll focus on. We'll leave this game right here in St Lucia. It's a short turnaround: we go to Barbados tomorrow and on Friday we have a game against the USA. We'll meet as a selection group and see how best we could further improve our team based on the conditions."
