Windies vice-captain Nicholas Pooran insists the team must find a coherent strategy to deal with India’s spinners after being caught in two minds in the opening match of the T20 series.
In the end, the West Indies were comfortably beaten by six wickets but at one point seemed set for a higher total than the 157 for 7 that the team eventually posted. At 72 for 2, at the start of the 10th over, the West Indies had a set Pooran and Roston Chase at the crease and seemed set to build on a solid enough foundation.
The introduction of leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi, however, threw a wrench into those plans as he immediately removed Chase who struggled to come to grips with the spinner before being dismissed for lbw. Bishnoi, who ended with 2 for 17, then removed the dangerous Rovman Powell later in the over. The debutant was the chief but not the team’s only issue as Yuzvendra Chahal had also proven difficult to get away on occasion.
“We played the spinners ok today, we would want to continue that and continue to build partnerships,” Pooran told members of the media following the match.
“We still need to negotiate the spinners a bit better, I think today we were caught in two minds how to go about them. Whether to attack them or keep them out of the game and we got caught in both minds there.”
Pooran top-scored for the Windies with 65.