West Indies’ Carlos Brathwaite shakes hands with MS Dhoni (right) after the second Twenty20 worldwide cricket match that was called off due to rain in Lauderhill, Florida on Sunday.
Advertisement
Umpires called off the match after a delay caused by rain and concerns about problem areas on parts of the outfield.
The match began late by 40 minutes due to technical reasons, and later rain spoilt India’s chase when they were 15 for none in two overs, chasing 144 to win.
When play was stopped, India was 15 without loss in two overs in reply to West Indies’s 143 all out in 19.4 overs.
After a last-ball thriller in the first T20 global between world champion West Indies and India, the second one fizzled out as rain played spoilsport in Lauderhill, Florida, yesterday.
MS Dhoni and Carlos Brathwaite (2L) of West Indies agree with umpires Patrick Gustard (2R) and Joel Wilson (R) to abandon their match due to rain during the 2nd and final T20i between West Indies and India. The strangle-hold was clear form the fact that in the first five overs West Indies scored 50 runs, 26 in the next five, and lost two wickets.
“Yes, it will be a bit cramped for worldwide cricketers, but I don’t think modern cricketers mind it”. India thus failed to pull off the highest ever successful run chase which still stands at 236 for 6 which the West Indies pulled off against South Africa in January past year in Johannesburg. “The venue looks good”, he said.
“I felt bowlers executed plans very well; 150 was a good score to achieve”. This is one place where spectators will come.
“I want to publicly state that the senior players all were positive supportive about my appointment and whenever I asked for suggestions, they gave ideas and suggestions and sometimes without even asking they were willing to help me out”. So it’s a win-win situation.
“We did take a bit of risk with Mishra coming in replacing Binny because we were one batsman short”.
The way the West Indians were hammering the Indian bowlers, it seemed that Dhoni’s decision to insert the opposition in backfired but his boys were up to the task and they were on the verge of turning the match on its head with a vintage batting performance only to fall short by just one run. We’ll probably get a team to break the 500-run barrier. “But we always had full confidence in defending our total”, the strapping West Indian said.
Surprisingly his counterpart Carlos Brathwaite had a completely different take on the playing conditions. From an individual point of view, I learnt a lot as a leader over the last two days, just rubbing shoulders with the senior guys who had captained in the CPL for four years and who have more experience in winning games.
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is eyeing former champion bowlers such as Courtney Walsh from West Indies and Allan Donald from South Africa, and even Venkatesh Prasad from India for filling up the role of the bowling coach for the national team. Fantastic field, fantastic wicket.
Advertisement
“Most definitely we would love to come here back again”, Brathwaite said.
