“Stop looking for excuses and start finding solutions,” said West Indies assistant coach Roddy Estwick, urging his side to stick together and come back stronger after suffering a crushing seven-wicket defeat to Bangladesh in the World Cup here.
Sent into bat, West Indies posted 321 for eight but a below-par bowling performance saw Bangladesh script the second highest successful run chase in World Cup history, knocking off the target of 322 with 8.3 overs to spare on Monday.
‘If you look at it, I thought we were 60 runs short on that pitch and on that size field. We then didn’t take the opportunities that came our way. We were always behind Bangladesh once they got through to 70/1,’ said Estwick after WI lost its third match on the trot in five games. ‘The big players didn’t kick on but saying that we made 321 runs and should have been able to defend that. But we can stand here, saying ‘if this’ and ‘if that’ – we didn’t play well, we’ve lost the cricket game and that’s that.
‘We’ve got to come back stronger. We’ve still got four games left in the tournament and we can’t
point fingers or apportion blame to anyone. We have to stick together; that’s how good teams pull through. Stop looking for excuses and start finding solutions.’ Odds are against West Indies now with just four games left to salvage any hopes of making it to the semi-finals in the 10-team tournament. However, Estwick said his team will fight it out till the end.
“We’re not down and out yet. We’re going to fight and come back harder,” he said. “Give Bangladesh credit. They played well and they’re an improving side. They’ve played us now five times in the recent past and have beaten us every time.”