West Indies intent on replicating success ahead of 2nd ODI

…Hetmyer added to squad as replacement for Greaves

West Indies One-Day International (ODI) team are currently on a high, heading into their second match of a five-match series against New Zealand, having won their first contest on Saturday by seven wickets, with seven balls remaining.
Standout performances came from 19-year-old debutant Vitel Lawes, pacer Alzarri Joseph, top-order batter Keacy Carty, and Captain Shai Hope as the Men in Maroon lit up the Guyana National Stadium at Providence, East Bank Demerara (EBD).
Carty, who was named Player of the Match for his elegant, stroke-filled 95 off 112 deliveries, punctuated by 10 fours and two sixes, later spoke on his outing with the bat.

“Not really too big on personal milestones, obviously I’m going to take it, because I was in a drought of form, but I’m just happy to have contributed to the win today,” Carty said in a post-match briefing, “I really wanted to start well, which I found I did. Things swung back in their favour just a little bit and I told myself ‘just stick with it, eventually it’s going to turn around’ and that’s what happened. We came out with a W.”
Addressing his 131-run partnership with Hope, Carty shared, “Definitely makes my job easier, you know; he’s a wonderful player in this format and I would say all-round. So, yeah, just makes it easier for me.”
Going back to West Indies’ preparation, Carty divulged that they were always confident after restricting New Zealand to a below-par score in Providence conditions.
“So, in the planning stages, we were told that 277 was the average winning score here, batting first. So, to restrict them for less than that, we always thought that we were in the game. We just had to put out a good batting performance – which we did,” Carty explained.
He also shared his thoughts on debutant Lawes, who snared 3-54 in his first-ever senior game:
“Definitely he had a good game for his first game. I initially saw him in the youth World Cup and I thought to myself this is something we can work with. So, happy to see not too long after he’s in the mix and kudos to him, he had a good game today.”
Looking ahead at today’s second ODI at Providence, Carty is intent on replicating the Windies success of last Saturday.
“For us, it’s just to try and repeat the processes that we went through in this game. Obviously, we know New Zealand is a quality side, they’re going to go back to the drawing board and formulate certain plans to counteract what happened today. It’s just for us to adapt as fast as possible, so we could end up with the same outcome,” Carty said.
New Zealand Captain Daryl Mitchell is hoping too his side can adapt quickly and capitalise on conditions.
Mitchell stated, “It’s obviously going to be on a different surface again, so, we’ll adapt as quick as we can to what their pitch brings. For us it’s just trying to make sure we keep improving day in, day out. The outcome will, hopefully, go our way if we keep doing the little things really well. That’s something that we pride ourselves on.
“So, we’ll learn from this experience today and be ready to go for the second one,” the Kiwi skipper added.

Hetmyer comes in
Explosive batter and local boy Shimron Hetmyer has been added to the West Indies Men’s ODI squad, Cricket West Indies (CWI) indicated on Sunday.
Hetmyer has been named as the replacement for Justin Greaves for the second and third matches of the series against New Zealand in Guyana. Greaves was ruled out of Saturday’s opening ODI with a back injury and will return to Barbados today to continue rehabilitation. He will be reassessed by the medical team ahead of the final two ODIs and the upcoming Test series against Pakistan.
CWI further noted that the squad for the final two matches of the series will be released later this week.