Improving fielding high on West Indies’ agenda — Nurse

West Indies vs Pakistan Brighto Paints presents Q Mobile ODI Series

By Akeem Greene

During the recently concluded home series against  England and even the T20 series against the touring Pakistan, West Indies produced some brilliances in the field  but more often than not, they were sloppy, leaking valuable runs and spilling valuable chances.
Heading into the upcoming three-match One-Day International (ODI) series against Pakistan, West Indies off-spinner Ashley Nurse told media operatives on Wednesday at the National Stadium, Providence that the team is hard at work in improving their fielding.
“Fielding is a key component for the boys, obviously we didn’t have a good series against England, we dropped a lot of catches, so this series is about improving, taking the catches that come and do a good job in the next three games, the Barbadian stated.
In addition to fielding, Nurse sees a need for the team to post more challenging scores for them to be victorious.  The player said, “Fielding is important but putting some good scores on the board and just staying together playing as team and I think [if we do that] we should come out on top.”
The Caribbean side enters the series on the back of two series loss, one against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E) last year, then

Ashley Nurse addressing the media on Wednesday at the National Stadium, Providence

England in the West Indies last month.
Despite the disappointing results, Nurse said the team is in high spirits and know the significance of a series win against an opponent that is ranked higher since the outcome of the series could have an impact on automatic qualification for the 2019 World Cup.
“We always stress on family, we always stress on being together, the moral is really good and hopefully the guys stay together in this upcoming series and push on from there,” Nurse disclosed.
The 28 year-old added, “it is a big series, it is obvious is for us the target is to qualify for the World Cup; the team is in good spirits and hopefully we have a good series.”

Catches win matches! Jonathon Carter (left) and Ashley Nurse engage in slip catching drills with batting coach Toby Radford

The right-arm bowler who has played just seven ODIs, had an impressive series against England where he took five wickets and chipped in with some valuable lower-order runs. That performance was a follow-up to him leading the bowling charts with 26 wickets in the Cricket West Indies (CWI) Super50 tournament for champions Barbados Pride.
“Obviously as a cricketer you try to improve every day, I had a good series against England and hopefully I have a good one against Pakistan,” the off spinner revealed.

Bulls eye! Ahmed Shehzad about to hit the stumps during a fielding drill (Akeem Greene photo)

Commenting on the possible change in conditions of the pitch, the spinner said that “it looks good and hopefully it plays better and we get some good scores.”
Meanwhile, Pakistan also had their first taste of practice at Providence where engaged in fielding drills and batting practice in the nets.  Both sides will be at the venue today fine-tuning their preparation ahead Friday’s series opener.
That match will be followed by another on Sunday and the final match of the series next Tuesday; all matches bowl off from 09:30h.