Batsmen did not rise to the occasion − Pooran says after defeats

In a do-or-die game for either the West Indies or Bangladesh, the Caribbean team are focusing on getting their first win of the ICC T20 World Cup. Vice-Captain Nicholas Pooran has said the batsmen did not come to the party, and the team is hurting after heavy defeats in their first two matches.

Speaking on the eve of the match in Sharjah, Pooran welcomed the inclusion of Jason Holder, disclosed that the batting group accepted their failures, and said they will be up for the challenge for the remaining matches.
“With the batting order, the batting order and batsmen, we just didn’t rise to the occasion, to be honest. If you can accept that we weren’t good on the first two games, I think as batsmen, as a team, we already accepted that we didn’t come to the party. And we’re looking forward to moving forward, and hopefully we can do much better,” Pooran said.
While not looking too far ahead, but cautious about the tricky surface and conditions at Sharjah, Pooran said the West Indies must really want this victory. “Bangladesh, after losing two games, they are in a situation with us, so it will be a good challenge for us tomorrow, and we need to get that victory, it’s how bad we actually want it,” he declared.
“It is a good opportunity to bounce back. Our focus is not on the small boundary; we just want to execute our skills, and once we can do that, the result will take care of itself. We can’t say it’s short boundaries, and we can hit sixes and be aggressive, we have to assess and then actually put a game plan in place and get a good score,” Pooran added.
Sharing his sentiments on the vexed dot-ball issue, Pooran said: “I think every team bat dot balls. It is the way we are batting dot balls, not showing intent, and that is hurting. We spoke about it, we don’t mind batting dot balls, it is just the intent, and we know we can make up back.”
Unlike the West Indies, Bangladesh have proverbially blown hot and cold with the bat. What would rankle them, though, is that they’ve fallen to well laid out plans by their opponents twice. Against Sri Lanka, they were left hiding their left-arm spinners when two left-handers made merry in the small Sharjah ground.
Against England, they lost the plot with the bat right through to spin, as Moeen Ali opened the attack successfully once again. That they have fallen short in smarts to outplay the opposition match-ups as well as the conditions at play could point to a lot more work needed from the backroom staff to address a lot of key issues.
FULL SQUAD: Kieron Pollard (Captain), Nicholas Pooran (Vice-Captain), Dwayne Bravo, Roston Chase, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Evin Lewis, Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Lendl Simmons, Oshane Thomas and Hayden Walsh Jr.
Travelling Reserves: Darren Bravo, Sheldon Cottrell and Gudakesh Motie.