On a pitch that Virat Kohli described as “sluggish”, West Indies finished with a below par 95 for 9 to go down by four wickets against India in the first T20I.
West Indies captain Carlos Brathwaite pointed to his batsmen’s assessment and shot selection as the reasons behind the defeat.
“Once again I think we didn’t assess conditions well,” Brathwaite said at the post-match presentation. “Kudos to Kieron (Pollard), coming back into the team, he showed his leadership and experience. On that wicket, 130-135 would have given the Indians more of a challenge. That being said, obviously a lot of heart and fight shown on the field. To take the game as deep as we did with the score that we did have shows that it was a tough pitch, and it’s probably a lack of assessment early enough that we batted ourselves out of the game.”
Brathwaite, however, said the overall method that West Indies used – attacking, positive play – would not change.
“We are going to play with positive, aggressive intent, as our instinct as West Indians allows us to play. So the message will continue to be to keep the intent,” he said. “However, we need to assess better and be a bit smarter in shot selection. So it’s not about not trying to get boundaries, but knowing that if you get a boundary early in the over on a tough pitch, you can settle for 6-7-8 an over. Get deeper (into the innings) and then our power at the back end – myself, Pollard, (Rovman) Powell coming in at the back end in the last five overs or so, we can probably get up to 150 today.”
India’s chase wasn’t smooth, with Rohit Sharma’s 24 the top score and six wickets down. Victory came only in 17.2 overs, but Kohli said the pitch contributed to how they batted.
“The pitch wasn’t great to be honest. (The groundstaff) Couldn’t really have done much with all the rain around, it was under covers for three-four days,” Kohli said. “I think they did a pretty good job to get the game started. But it was a sluggish pitch and bowlers were on top. Variations were not coming onto the bat.
“We lost a couple of wickets more than what we would have liked. But that’s how the pitch was.”