Roddy Estwick wants West Indies to focus on building partnerships

West Indies bowling coach Roddy Estwick has urged his side to concentrate on building partnerships in order

to improve upon their performance in the ongoing tri-series.
In the game against Australia in Guyana, West Indies were bowled out for 116 runs and went on to lose the match by six wickets with 146 balls still left in the game.
Despite a complete batting failure, Estwick termed the defeat as a collective responsibility and was confident that by building partnerships, the team can turn the results around.
“It is a collective thing. We are all in this together, so we wouldn’t say it is the bowlers or the batters that let us down.
“We did not play well as a team in the last game and we know the areas that we need to improve.
“It is 50-over cricket and we need to get partnerships.
“Once we can get a partnership and somebody in the top four can get a big score we can turn it around, no doubt about that.”
West Indies are taking on South Africa and Australia in the ongoing tri-series and both the teams are ranked

significantly higher than the hosts.
However, Estwick believes that this is a good opportunity for West Indies to challenge themselves and gauge their improvement over a period of time.
“That is why you play international cricket.
“You challenge yourself against the best and that is the gauge to see how far you have come.
“Guyana here is a different surface and when you go to St Kitts there is going to be a different pitch as well and you’ve got to rise to the challenge as a team and as a collective unit and that is what we are working to do.”
In the match against Australia in Guyana, the West Indies bowlers managed to pick four wickets and Sunil Narine starred with two scalps to his name.
Grading the bowling performance as 75 percent, Estwick wants to see a gradual improvement and wants the bowlers to keep learning.
“If you were grading it, I would say 75 percent.
“I am not totally happy yet and you are never happy.
“You are still striving to get better and get it near perfect.
“You are never going to get it 100 percent but you must see a gradual improvement.
“You must see the slide going upward.
“You keep improving, you keep passing on ideas and you are trying to work the Australian batsmen as well.
“So you keep learning all the time. Once you keep learning, you’ve got a chance, and Like I always say, if teaching happens, learning happens.”
The one area where West Indies performed well in both the games so far is the spin bowling attack with Narine and Sulieman Benn bowling well in tandem.
Though Estwick is happy with the way the West Indies spinners are performing, he wants them to study the technical aspects like par scores and pitch conditions to come out on top of the batsmen every time.
“The spinners are in a good place.
“Sunil Narine is a world class spinner, there is no doubt about that; so is Sulieman Benn. We are very happy about them.
“We’ve still got Ashley Nurse waiting in the wings.
“Your lengths tend to change, it depends from territories to territories.
“We will have to study the lengths we need to bowl.
“We have to study the par scores. There are little technical things that you have to do to make sure you come out on top.”
West Indies will play their third fixture of the tri-series against Australia on 13th June in St Kitts and will follow it up with another match against South Africa at the same venue on 15th. (Sandeep Shivam, Cricket World)