Nicholas Pooran joined the other captains on Saturday to launch the Big Show and the stage is now set for the marquee cricket event of the year. West Indies skipper was among the 16 men in charge as they made history, coming together Melbourne, Australia – one of the world’s iconic sporting cities. This was the first time all captains came together at an ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
The Captains’ Day marks the start of the eighth edition of the event that promises to keep more than a billion cricket fans across the globe on the edge of their seats from start to finish. Pooran is charged with leading the West Indies as they go in search of an unprecedented third title. Daren Sammy was at the helm in 2012 and 2016 when the West Indies lifted the trophy – making them the only team to win the coveted title twice – a rich legacy.
Pooran told the audience: “To be honest, I don’t feel like there’s a lot of pressure … we believe that we are a new group of guys, yes, we are new when it comes to T20 cricket. We start at the bottom … think we have the toughest way to the World Cup, and the guys understand that. I keep telling them it may be a blessing in disguise for us to start in the qualifiers first. Obviously everyone knows when you want something you have to work really hard for it.” He added: “But yes, we want to qualify, and obviously there's some pressure, as well, but the guys are not thinking about that. We just want to focus on ourselves and try to play the best cricket we can.”
The big event gets underway on Sunday at 3pm local time when Sri Lanka face Namibia at Kardinia Park Stadium in Geelong in Group A. It will be followed by the United Arab Emirates against the Netherlands at 7pm local time. This marks the first of 45 matches over 28 days with the champions to be crowned at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 13 November.
West Indies will bowl off their campaign on Monday against Ireland at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart. First ball is 3pm local time (12 midnight Eastern Caribbean/11pm Jamaica). The two teams are in Group B alongside Zimbabwe and Scotland. The two top teams in the preliminary round will advance to the Super12s stage of the event.
Brandon King scored a half-century and Raymon Reifer claimed three wickets as the West Indies won their warm-up match against the United Arab Emirates at Junction Stadium by 17 runs on Sunday night.
It was not an easy win for the Caribbean men who would have suffered jitters when medium pacer Junaid Siddique took career-best figures of 5-13 to restrict West Indies to 152-9 from their 20 overs.
The West Indies owed their eventual match-winning score to a 95-run fourth wicket partnership between King and Captain Nicholas Pooran that spared the Caribbean men blushes after UAE won the toss and decided to bowl.
It seemed the right decision as the West Indies were struggling at 22-3 inside the Powerplay.
The dismissal of Evin Lewis (2), Johnson Charles (1) and Sharmarh Brooks (4) brought King and Pooran together in the fifth over and together they dragged the West Indies into a position of relative strength.
The West Indies captain hit five fours in his 31-ball 46 before he was bowled by Zahoor Khan, who had earlier dismissed Brooks. It was then 117-4 in the 15th over.
The loss of Pooran’s wicket saw the West Indies slip to 122-7 as Siddique, who had earlier removed Charles, scythed through the middle order with three wickets in four balls claiming Reifer for one, King for 64 and Akeal Hosein without scoring.
King's runs came from 45 balls and included seven fours and two sixes.
Siddique picked up his fifth wicket in the 18th over when he bowled Odean Smith for five.
Alzarri Joseph helped the West Indies past 150 with 15 well-needed runs from 11 balls before being the last man out, leaving Rovman Powell unbeaten on seven and Obed McCoy on four at the end.
Khan ended with 2-24.
Needing 153 for victory, UAE were 19-1 at the end of three when McCoy dismissed Chirag Suri for nine.
Muhammad Waseem and Vriityia Avarind took the score to 50 in the eighth when Reifer dismissed the latter for nine and CP Rizwan for one in the space of four balls as UAE slipped to 52-3 in the ninth.
The UAE ran into further trouble three balls later when Evin Lewis ran out Aayan Afzal Khan for a duck.
Waseem and Basil Hameed inched the score along to 66 by the 13th over when Reifer claimed his third after dismissing Hameed for five. It was soon 82 for 6 in the 16th when Odean Smith dismissed Kashif Daud for seven.
With nothing to lose UAE went for broke smashing 53 from the final 26 balls.
Waseem brought up his 50 with a six from the last ball of the 17th over bowled by McCoy that yielded 16 runs. The pair also took 15 from the 19th bowled by Alzarri Joseph, whose last ball was smashed for six by Zawar Farid, who ended unbeaten on 29 from the 14 balls he faced.
Waseem’s heroic unbeaten 69 came from 52 balls and included four fours and three sixes as UAE closed on 135-6.
Reifer took 3-13 while Odean Smith had figures of 1-20 from his four overs. McCoy gave up 49 runs from his four overs.
West Indies white-ball Captain Nicholas Pooran on Tuesday gave his first reaction to the absence of left-hander Shimron Hetmyer from the squad preparing for their series against Australia and the subsequent ICC T20 World Cup.
Hetmyer was originally named in the 15-man squad for the Australia series and the World Cup before being replaced by Shamarh Brooks on Monday.
The Guyanese batsman, who recently captained the Guyana Amazon Warriors to a playoff appearance in the Caribbean Premier League, was scheduled to travel to Australia to join the squad on Saturday before informing CWI that he would be unable to make the flight.
He was then rebooked for a flight on Monday before, once again, informing the CWI that he wouldn’t be able to make it. CWI’s selection panel then unanimously voted to replace him with Brooks. Before scheduling the Monday flight, he was informed that failure to make the flight would leave CWI no choice but to replace him in the squad.
“To be honest, that’s not my focus at the moment,” Pooran said in a press conference on Tuesday.
“The decision has been made, there are consequences for your actions. At the moment, I just want to focus on why we’re here and how we’re going to achieve our goals. Obviously, we planned with him but, unfortunately, he’s not here and we have to plan differently now,” he added.
“He’s definitely an experienced cricketer,” was Pooran’s reaction when Australian journalists questioned him about Hetmyer’s replacement in the squad, Shamarh Brooks.
“He’s been in our white-ball set up for the last year and has been doing fantastic. He had a really good CPL as well. He has a vital role to play for us,” he added.
Brooks is fresh off a fantastic CPL playoffs where he had scores of 47, 109* and 47 to help the Jamaica Tallawahs win their third CPL title.
Barbados Royals kept their unbeaten run intact as they made it six wins from six in Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) following victory over the Trinbago Knight Riders on Tuesday night.
The Royals won the toss and opted to field first and took full advantage of that decision with their spinners Rahkeem Cornwall and Mujeeb Ur Rahman causing havoc upfront.
Four wickets fell in the first seven overs and the Knight Riders struggled to get back into the game.
Nicholas Pooran put up a valiant fight with a battling half-century but the 132 they posted was short of a competitive total.
If there were any lingering doubts in the Royals' minds about chasing the total in front of a raucous Queens Park Oval, Kyle Mayers didn’t read the script. He hit a blistering 79 to stun the home crowd and lead the Royals to a comfortable win.
The Queens Park Oval was silenced inside the PowerPlay as the Royals took out the Knight Riders' top order.
Cornwall and the debuting Mujeeb Ur Rahman dismissed Tion Webster, Colin Munro and Tim Seifert in quick succession to leave Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pollard with a major rescue job on their hands.
When Pollard fell to Ur Rahman straight after the PowerPlay all looked lost for the Knight Riders but Pooran and Sunil Narine put together a fine rebuilding partnership to leave the home team well set at 100-4 with five overs to go.
However, when Obed McCoy bowled Pooran for a well-constructed 52 off 44 balls, that signalled the end of the Knight Riders' fight back. The remaining batters stuttered their way to a total of 132 which was not enough against the irresistible Barbados Royals.
If the Knight Riders were going to have a chance then a lot depended on taking wickets in the PowerPlay, Daryn Dupavillon provided the early joy clean bowling Cornwall for 1.
But that was to be as good as it got as the Hero CPL leading run scorer, Kyle Mayers, hit a stunning 79 from 35 balls to guide the Royals to the edge of victory.
Corbin Bosch and Quinton De Kock saw out the remaining runs with minimum fuss to ensure the Royals remain unbeaten.
Scores: Barbados Royals 136-2 (Mayers 79, Bosch 33*; Dupavillon 2-30) beat Trinbago Knight Riders 132 (Pooran 52, Narine 30; Ur Rahman 3-17, Cornwall 2-27) by 8 wickets
West Indies white-ball captain Nicholas Pooran said his bowlers’ struggles with the wet ball contributed to the team’s five-wicket loss to New Zealand in the third and final ODI match at the Kensington Oval on Sunday night.
The loss, with 17 balls to spare meant New Zealand won the three-match series 2-1.
Playing before their home crowd, Kyle Mayers scored 105 and Shai Hope, 51, to set the base for the West Indies’ challenging total of 301-8.
Both featured in an opening stand of 173 before Trent Boult dismissed Hope in the 35th over. Two balls later Lockie Ferguson removed Mayers at the same score and triggered a slide as the West Indies slipped to 191-4 in the 39th over.
Pooran then came to the rescue smashing nine sixes and four fours in a 55-ball 91 that took the West Indies within sight of 300 by the time he was dismissed by Boult in the 49th over.
Alzarri Joseph clubbed 20 from just six balls as the West Indies innings closed on 301-8.
Boult finished with 3-53 while Mitchell Sandter took 2-38. Ferguson was the most expensive of the bowlers with 1-80 from his 10 overs.
Needing 302 for victory, Martin Guptill (54), Devon Conway (56), Tom Latham (69) and Daryl Mitchell (63) combined to take the tourists within sight of victory.
James Neesham then took them over the line with 17 balls to spare with a quick-fire 34 from 11 balls to seal the match and the series.
Jason Holder was the best of the West Indies bowlers with 2-37. Yannic Corriah returned figures of 2-77.
Pooran, who dropped Mitchell on 23 off Corriah’s bowling rued the team’s failure to secure victory.
“Tough one. 300-plus on that wicket felt good. One or two wickets more in the Powerplay would have helped but they played well,” he said.
“When it (the ball) got wet, we saw how tough it got.”
He also addressed the West Indies' slow start to their innings wherein they scored only 24 runs from the first 10 overs.
“In hindsight, everyone will talk about starting slow,” Pooran said. “But we had discussed not giving away wickets to Boult and Southee and capitalize.
“But they are a top team. I do believe we have a special bunch of guys and have no doubt we will get better with experience. It was difficult with the ball once it got wet. We let go of the chance of winning the second and this happened. We won the first, lost the second and we came here, committed and fought. We will learn and have better ways.”
West Indies batsman Shamarh Brooks has credited the team’s determination to put in the hard yards early on as crucial to earning a 5-wicket win over New Zealand in the opening One Day International (ODI) on Wednesday.
Brooks was deservedly named man-of-the-match, in large part due to compiling a steady 79 from 91, which underpinned much of the West Indies' success in responding to the New Zealand total.
The player's efforts were all the more impressive after the Kiwis struggled to come to grips with a difficult surface, where Kane Williamson had the highest score with 34.
Brooks, however, had plenty of support, particularly from Windies skipper Nicholas Pooran who was uncharacteristically restrained in a knock of 28 from 47.
“It was just getting the start, that was ideal. As I said before the wicket wasn’t the easiest to bat on but the longer we spent out there is the easier it got,” Brooks said in assessing the situation.
“I told him (Pooran) that we had never had a partnership in this form of cricket and that I was looking forward to it. So, we just put our heads together, as I said it was tough going at the start but Nicky put down his head. It was a bit out of character because he is normally very fluid and plays a lot of shots but it was very good in the end.”
West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran has admitted the absence of frontline spinner Gudakesh Motie will be a huge blow for the team ahead of a crucial upcoming One Day International (ODI) series against New Zealand.
The 27-year-old spinner has not played since the first ODI against India where he fractured his thumb while fielding. As a result, the player missed the second and third matches and the entire T20 series against India and New Zealand.
With the three matches against New Zealand being the West Indies’ last remaining three fixtures in the ICC ODI Super League, and with the prospect to secure automatic qualification for the 2023 ICC World Cup in India on the line, Pooran would love to have all his best players available. He has, however, expressed confidence that the team can make do with the available players.
“It’s a blow for us, especially looking at his performances in the Bangladesh series and how well he bowled in that first game against India,” Pooran told members of the media on Tuesday.
“I thought we were starting to get that chemistry between both him and Akeal (Hosein) they are two of the better spinners in the Caribbean but it is what it is,” he added.
“We hope he will recover and soon be available to us but having said that Kevin Sinclair is here, Yannic Cariah has gotten picked and we are backing them to deliver 100 percent.”
Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Nicholas Pooran are the latest big names from the Caribbean to sign up for the UAE's International League T20 (ILT20).
They join the likes of Andre Fletcher, Sheldon Cottrell, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shimron Hetmyer, Evin Lewis, Fabian Allen, Rovman Powell, Akeal Hosein, Raymon Reifer, Sherfane Rutherford, Ravi Rampaul, Kennar Lewis and Dominic Drakes as West Indians participating in the inaugural edition of the tournament.
Other big names participating include England's Moeen Ali and Alex Hales as well as Sri Lankan leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga.
The ILT20 is set to begin in January next year in the UAE and is competing with South Africa's T20 League for players. There will be six franchises consisting of 18 players each.
The 2023 edition of the ILT20 will have 34 matches. All the teams will play each other twice, before four playoffs, including the final, spread across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.
West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran believes the team is improving despite a fourth straight T20 international loss to open the series against New Zealand.
Following a difficult 4-1 series loss to top team India, the team narrowly lost its opening match against the Kiwis by 13 runs, thanks in large part to the late-innings heroics of Romario Shepherd and Odean Smith.
Chasing a decent total of 185, the West Indies lost wickets in clusters in the middle overs but Shepherd and Smith added 58 for the seventh wicket. Having cracked a score of 150 just once in the previous series, Pooran found some encouragement in the team’s opener, despite the result.
“I’m happy we are starting to find our template. We know scores above 175, 180 can be tricky for us but we can see that we are actually starting to bat deep,” Pooran said, following the match.
“Guys are actually starting to play the situation a bit smarter. Today Jason was in that position with Shamarh Brooks. I thought both of them batted really well, they just never got that big over that was required, having said that, I think the template is coming nicely,” he added.
The West Indies and New Zealand will play the second match of the series on Friday.
The West Indies suffered a crushing 59-run defeat to India in Lauderhill on Saturday, falling to an unassailable 1-3 series deficit in the process.
After winning the toss and electing to field first, the hosts felt the wrath of the Indians from the outset with openers Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav speeding to 53 without loss after just 4.4 overs before Sharma was dismissed for a 16-ball 33 including two fours and three sixes.
Yadav’s dismissal for 24 in the sixth over then paired Deepak Hooda and Rishabh Pant who added a further 47 before Hooda’s wicket fell for 21 in the 12th over to leave the score on 108-3.
Pant went on to top-score with 44 before his dismissal in the 15th over. Sanju Samson (30 not out), Axar Patel (20 not out) and Dinesh Karthik (6) then combined to put the finishing touches on a fine effort with the bat for India, ending 191-5 from their 20 overs.
Alzarri Joseph was the pick of the bowlers for the Windies with 2-29 from his four overs.
The hosts then struggled throughout their reply thanks to some excellent bowling by India and some questionable decision-making by the batsmen.
Brandon King (13) and Kyle Mayers (14) both got starts but fell cheaply while captain Nicholas Pooran sprinted to 24 off just eight balls before he was run out after a mix-up with Mayers.
Rovman Powell with a quick 24, Shimron Hetmyer (19) and Jason Holder (13) were the only other batsmen to reach double-figures as the Windies struggled to a paltry 132 all-out after 19.1 overs.
Arshdeep Singh led the way for the Indians with 3-12 from 3.1 overs while he got good support from Avesh Khan (2-17) and Ravi Bishnoi (2-27).
West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran believes the team must be better at managing the game’s big moments following a 68-run loss to India in the first of five T20 internationals on Friday.
Despite switching formats, the Caribbean team failed to snap its losing streak against India after skipper Rohit Sharma's quickfire 64, from 44 deliveries, laid the platform for India to post a challenging 190. The team was also boosted by an unbeaten 41 off just 19 balls from Dinesh Karthik.
In pursuit of the target, the Windies failed to put any significant partnerships together and the highest individual total of 20 came from Shamarh Brooks.
Their struggles were in large part due to the efforts of India’s spin trio of Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Ravi Bishnoi who combined to stifle the Windies at the crease. In total, the trio picked up five wickets.
“We are going to have games like this where we are going to just get shut out. The batsmen did get starts but we didn’t capitalize on those starts. We didn’t win the big moments today and it’s as simple as that,” Pooran said following the game.
The team also made changes to its typical batting order, with all-rounder Jason Holder promoted to three. He was, however, dismissed without scoring by Ravindra Jadeja.
“It was good for us to come out here and experiment a bit. The guys did show up but we need to hold our nerve in big moments, especially when the pressure is on, we need to embrace it,” he added.
The West Indies have now lost seven consecutive white ball games after going down by 68 runs to India in the first of five T20 Internationals at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba on Friday.
West Indian captain Nicholas Pooran won the toss and elected to field first.
India’s opening pair of returning captain Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav got the ball rolling, putting on a partnership of 44 before Yadav was dismissed by Jason Holder for a quick 16-ball 24.
Captain Sharma provided a steady head for the Indians throughout the majority of the innings as he lost partners Shreyas Iyer (0), Rishabh Pant (14) and Hardik Pandya (1) before eventually being dismissed in the 15th over for a top score of 64 to leave the tourists 127-5.
They eventually got up to 190-6 off their 20 overs thanks to cameos from Ravindra Jadeja (16) and Ravichandran Ashwin (13) as well as a brilliant closing effort of 41 from just 19 balls including four fours and two sixes from Dinesh Karthik.
Left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein was brilliant for the hosts with an economical 1-14 from his four overs while opening pacer Obed McCoy took 1-30 from his four.
The West Indian reply got off to a fast start thanks to openers Kyle Mayers and Shamarh Brooks as the pair sped to 22-0 in the second over before Mayers fell for 15 to pacer Arshdeep Singh.
The Windies then tried to gamble, sending Jason Holder up the order to bat at three but this move fell flat as he was next to go, bowled by Ravindra Jadeja for a duck.
The innings then ground to a virtual halt as Brooks (20), Nicholas Pooran (18), Rovman Powell (14), Shimron Hetmyer (14), Akeal Hosein (11) and Odean Smith (0) all perished to, eventually, leave the Windies needing 90 off 21 balls for victory.
Keemo Paul and Alzarri Joseph then finished not out on 19 and 5, respectively, to end the innings on 122-8, 68 runs short.
It was a balanced bowling effort by the Indians with Ravichandran Ashwin (2-22 off four overs), Arshdeep Singh (2-24 off four overs) and Ravi Bishnoi (2-26 off four overs) all contributing well.
West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran insists the team will relish the challenge against India and is determined to be more successful as the tour shifts to the T20 format.
The regional team is coming off a difficult run of matches in the ODI format where it lost its last nine in a row. Recent history suggests the Windies will, however, be far more competitive in the T20 format. The team is in fact coming off a 3-0 sweep of Bangladesh in 20 overs, before experiencing a reversal of fortunes in the ODIs.
The team has also typically competed well against India in the format, but it is the Indians who have ended up with the lion's share of the victories in recent years. Pooran is hoping that particular statistic will be changed.
“The guys are always up for the challenge against India, they want to show the world what they are made of as well,” Pooran told members of the media on Thursday.
“For some reason, we just turn up and perform well, unfortunately, we haven’t been getting the series wins and that is something that we need to happen. We don’t want to perform as players and the team is still losing. So, the only thing on our mind is to find a way to be successful.”
The West Indies and India will square off for five matches beginning on Friday.
Rohit Sharma returns to lead India when a five-match Twenty20 International series against West Indies starts on Friday.
India's captain was rested for the 3-0 one-day international whitewash of the Windies, but will be back in action at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy,
Shikhar Dhawan skippered the tourists as his fellow opener was given a rest for the 50-over contests.
Rohit will expect India to maintain their momentum when the series gets under way in Tarouba, Trinidad, with the T20 World Cup in Australia on the horizon.
India have won five and drawn one of their past six series in the shortest format, beating England most recently.
They are top of the rankings and have shown their strength in depth amid a hectic schedule.
Jasprit Bumrah and Yuzvendra Chahal have been rested for this series along with out-of-sorts former captain Virat Kohli, but the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav are back.
West Indies beat Bangladesh 2-0 in their last T20I series, but India consigned them to a 3-0 clean sweep in February.
Nicholas Pooran has endured a difficult start to his tenure as Windies white-ball skipper and his side face another big challenge in a series that includes two matches in Florida.
Yadav primed for more heroics
Suryakumar Yadav made a match-winning 117 when India beat England in the T20I decider at Trent Bridge.
With fierce competition in the middle order and Kohli absent, Yadav will see this series as another opportunity to cement his spot.
Windies batters must show consistency
Despite being beaten by India in all three ODIs, West Indies twice posted over 300.
They must show a consistency that has been lacking as they build towards the World Cup, led by Pooran, who has certainly not been short of runs as skipper and was man of the series in the T20I series success over the Tigers.
West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran and Brandon King each fell short of a half-century as the team failed to halt the momentum of India who completed a 3-0 ODI sweep over the West Indies on Wednesday.
In the rain-affected fixture, India triumphed by a massive 119-runs via the Duckworth Lewis method, after Shubman Gill’s 98 anchored the team’s first innings effort of 225 for 3, in a reduced 36 overs.
In pursuit, the West Indies never really got things out of first gear. As early as the second over, Mohammed Siraj dealt the men in maroon an early blow, after getting rid of Kyle Mayers and Shamarh Brooks in the same over, which left the team struggling at 0 for 2.
King and Shai Hope put on a 47-run stand to give the team a fighting chance. Yuzvendra Chahal struck to end the partnership, however, after Hope was stumped for 22. King then partnered with Pooran to keep the recovery going, but that momentum was ended when Axar Patel's arm-ball bowled King for 42, leaving the team at 5-103.
With a climbing run rate the struggles of Keacy Carty, who was next at the crease, put pressure on Pooran to keep up with the run rate. Carty was put out of his misery after going down the pitch to Shardul and edging the ball onto the stumps, making a total of 5 from 17 balls.
With the rate needed climbing to 10 an over Pooran was dismissed for 42 when he was caught at mid-on off by Prasidh Krishna. Chahal ended with the best figures for India after taking 4 for 17.
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