Windies coach Dyson blames players for loss

Abu Dhabi: West Indies coach John Dyson blamed his batsmen's overly aggressive style for their loss to Pakistan in the second ODI.

The coach said the players were only interested in hitting big shots rather than picking up runs when they could.

He said: "Too many of my players believe that you can only hit boundaries.

"If you've watched some of the more experienced Pakistan batsmen play, in the first one day in particular, you would have seen how well they rotated the strike and took singles whenever they could.

"They kept the score board ticking over."

The West Indies lost by 24 runs in Friday's match despite bowling Pakistan out for 232 in 49 overs.

Dyson said: "This style of going for the big shots goes back to many years and it is the style that the Caribbean crowd loves.

"They love the ball being crushed. But you also need to change the strike over and pick more singles.

"If you compare our first match score board with Pakistan's innings, one can compare the number of boundaries we hit and the singles we ran.

Style of cricket

"I don't want them to lose their style of cricket. They like to play their way because they are good hitters; but in between they need to keep rotating the strike until they find a ball that can be put away."

Dyson also said that his players had not fully recovered from the jet lag for the matches.

He said: "Look at the research articles on jet lag and they say that when you cross multiple time zones you need quite a bit of time to get back.

"We flew a lot to reach here and practiced and practiced and played. There hasn't been a lot of recovery time before the series started."

But he insisted the West Indies should have won the second match after bowling well to restrict Pakistan to 232.

He said: "I am disappointed. We could have bowled them out for a lesser total. Also, it was a gettable total but we did not bat well enough."

Dyson said the turning point was Pakistan taking the West Indies' openers.

He said: "Losing both the openers for no score was significant.

"Another was when Xavier Marshall was unfortunately run out. That put a lot of pressure on us during that stage.

"In the first match Chris Gayle played brilliantly and he has been in tremendous form during the last few one-dayers.

"The other batsmen have supported him very well. In the first match after we were none for 120 in 20 overs, we should have scored a 300 plus.

"That required everyone to kick in and make a contribution. At the same time, we should have defended the score of 295, which was a good total.

"Tonight, we bowled well but we still bowled too many balls on the wrong length and line and gave them opportunities for a free hit.

"Pakistan has a stronger all-round team. We have some new players in the team and are very inexperienced at this level."

Chris Gayle: 'We beat ourselves'

West Indies skipper Chris Gayle said the team beat themselves after losing to Pakistan for the second time in three days after being in a position of strength.

"We obviously have ourselves to blame," said Gayle, who hit a century on Wednesday but saw his team beaten in the last over while on Friday, an unbeaten century from Shivnarine Chanderpaul was not enough for the West Indies to win.

The skipper said: "Yes we have a young team. But we cannot continue to keep saying that it is a young side. The boys have to step up and be counted. They have to grab the chance and perform."

"We have another game and we will have to get back to the drawing board and start working on how to get it right."

- Satya Narayan, Senior Reporter