Hope calls for peak performance against India

With a must-win game looming against defending champions India on Sunday, West Indies captain Shai Hope has admitted that they must execute better if they are to have a chance of advancing to the semifinals of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

The Windies went into their match against South Africa knowing that victory would have almost certainly booked a spot in the final four, but failed to fire with either bat or ball and were comprehensively beaten by nine wickets.

With India’s 72-run victory over Zimbabwe in the late game, it means the Proteas have advanced, with the winner between West Indies and India set to join them in the semifinals.

Speaking in a post-match press conference on Thursday, Hope said the Windies needed to be at their best when they take on India on Sunday at Eden Gardens.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a difficult road; I would say this is how it’s supposed to be, because when you come into crunch time in a tournament every opposition or every game you play now is supposed to be a challenge.

“This is the reason it’s the Super Eights and then if you get to the semis and the finals there is a reason why, because they are the best teams in the latter stages of the tournament,” Hope said.

“I wouldn’t say it’s anything to jump out the board, but we have to ensure that we play our better cricket now. We see a situation that we could face in the next couple of days, so we have to make sure we turn things around quickly and get a good result against India.”

In assessing the team’s performance against South Africa, Hope conceded that the team’s eventual total of 176 for eight was well short of a competitive total.

He said their lack of execution, which saw them slump to 83 for seven at one stage, was to blame.

“There are so many factors you can come and discuss, but I think it always boils down to execution.

“Sometimes when you don’t adapt and assess as quickly as you would like, then you find yourself playing catch up and in this situation I felt like it was a very good surface…” Hope said.

“I felt as though we were 40, 50, even 60 runs short the way how the pitch was playing. Maybe we didn’t assess as good as we could have and then the wickets in the Powerplay would always push us back.”

However, Hope defended the West Indies’ top order, with several batsmen losing their wickets going for big shots.

He said their decisions were understandable, given the fact that the wicket was an ideal batting surface.

“…There’s no right or wrong way to go about it…it’s just how best we can execute on a given day in whichever situation we’re faced with.

“The ideal situation would be for the openers to get off to a great start, bat all the way through the innings, and have as many wickets in hand to go as hard as you want, but every game doesn’t go that way, and we saw today was one of those games. It’s just unfortunate we didn’t get as many runs as we wanted to,” Hope said.

“…I wouldn’t say that we should have changed the way we went about it. Maybe a few decisions could be questioned, but we got ourselves up to 170 plus from the position we were in, so I think you must give the guys credit for their effort.”

(CMC)