Basseterre, St Kitts — West Indies believe they have what is required to rebound and beat New Zealand when the two teams meet in the crucial fourth Digicel One-Day International at Warner Park.
The Windies had a full training session on Friday morning and will come out fired up as they look for the series-clinching win on Saturday. The home side lost on Wednesday by 88 runs, but still lead the five-match series 2-1, with two more matches left.
West Indies Head Coach Ottis Gibson spoke on Friday and outlined the team’s approach to Saturday’s encounter.
“We had a good chat so everybody understands the importance of winning tomorrow and wrapping up the series, so everybody’s raring to go. It was a disappointing performance on the back of the solid work we had done before, the solid work we did coming out of a tough series in England,” Gibson said.
West Indies have been dominant throughout the Digicel Series so far. They won the two-match Digicel T20 Series in Florida and then won the first two Digicel ODIs in Jamaica by nine wickets and 55 runs.
Chris Gayle has been dominant with the bat at the top of the order with scores of 63 not out, 125 and 11 in the ODIs. However, Gibson said his side is not a “one-man team” and explained that there are quality players in all departments.
“It’s not doom and gloom. We lost a game … we look back at where we went wrong and then we aim to correct those mistakes in the next game. We just didn’t occupy the crease the way we talked about. There were no significant partnerships. All the standards we set ourselves as a batting group, we didn’t hit any of those and it cost us the game,” Gibson said.
“No one-man team has ever won many things in any sport so we need all hands on deck,” he pointed out.
“We try to win every game but the reality is that we’re not going to win every game, but the attitude that we have should suggest that we’re trying to.”
Gibson added: “If one man dominates the stats and we win the game, it doesn’t mean we’re a one-man team because that one man still needed the other 10 guys around him to help him to be as good as he can be.”
The Selection Committee of the West Indies Cricket Board has made one change to the 13-man squad. Wicket-keeper Devon Thomas has been called up to replace Denesh Ramdin, who is getting married.
First ball in the fourth Digicel ODI is 9:30 am (8:30 am Jamaica Time).
FULL SQUAD: Darren Sammy (Captain), Dwayne Bravo (Vice Captain), Tino Best, Johnson Charles, Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith, Devon Thomas (Wicket-keeper)
DIGICEL 2012 SERIES – New Zealand to West Indies
Digicel ODI (All times local)
July 5: 1st Digicel ODI – West Indies won by 9 wickets at Sabina Park, Jamaica
July 7: 2nd Digicel ODI – West Indies won by 55 runs at Sabina Park
July 11: 3rd Digicel ODI – New Zealand won by 88 runs at Warner Park, St. Kitts
July 14: 4th Digicel ODI – Warner Park – 9:30 a.m.
July 16: 5th Digicel ODI – Warner Park – 9:30 a.m.