Dubai: The West Indies players in the Pakistan Super League love to entertain first — not only through their exploits on the field but by the way they approach the game. They enjoy every moment, be it a win or loss and make sure never to brood over a mistake and thus stop enjoying a contest.
Peshawar Zalmi’s captain Darren Sammy and top order batsman Dwayne Smith from West Indies were two such examples on Sunday night. Smith cracked an unbeaten 71 and was responsible for Peshawar being able to post 131 for nine against Karachi Kings in the second match at the Dubai International Stadium.
Peshawar lost the match by five wickets in the last over only despite defending a small total. It was their second defeat in the league though they are the defending champions.
When asked, Sammy had this to say instead of blaming his teammates: “Proud of the guy to take the match to the last few balls. Credit to Dwayne (Smith), he gave us a game to play.”
Despite Peshawar ending as losers, Smith was rightly judged as the Man of the Match.
When Gulf News asked Smith whether a bit of support from a few batsmen from the other end could have helped him to rake up a better total, Smith said: “I have played over 300 T20 matches and I just need to use my experience and do what I have to do at that stage of the game and so I don’t really need any help. We had to get to a good score for us to bowl at so I had to take chances and try and get as many runs as I could.”
Smith was responsible for running out two batsmen, including his skipper Sammy during the course of his innings. When asked whether those run-outs were the reason for the defeat, he said: “I don’t really think so, we probably lost wickets at crucial times. We had some soft dismissals and we had some run outs which were very important. For me it is gone and forgotten and we cannot bring it back now.”
Interestingly, he also appealed his teammates to shrug off the defeat. “We need to be positive and not get this game into our heads but throw it out. We need to take the positive way and bounce back and get into the play offstage. We bowled really well so we can get back.”
On behalf of his team, he also announced: “The guys have not given up and we are going to fight till the end.”
Smith then picked young 19-year-old teammate Ibtisam Shaikh for special praise as the latter bowled brilliantly and took a spectacular diving catch. “We have a youngster in the team and he is doing very well. It seems like he has played nearly 300 games too. He is so aggressive and confident in what he has to do.”
Smith then concluded by reflecting his outlook towards matches. “I think that game is gone and it is time to move on. Life is not over we have still have more games to go and I am not bothered.”
