The fielding effort of the West Indies squad was criticized by head coach Darren Sammy after their shocking defeat to Zimbabwe in the ICC World Cup 2023 Qualifiers on Saturday.
Sammy said that his side didn’t deserve to win the match because of how poorly they played on the field.
As a result of fifty run innings from Sikandar Raza and Ryan Burl, Zimbabwe was only able to score 268 runs in their allotted 50 overs. The West Indies seemed to be in control of the situation from the beginning, but the bowlers from Zimbabwe fought back strongly and eventually bowled them out for 233 runs, which allowed them to win the match.
As a result of this, West Indies are in a very vulnerable position heading into the Super Six stage, and their ability to compete in the World Cup is now up in the air. Sammy criticized the fielding that his team displayed during the game at the press conference. He added that his team did not deserve to win the match in the end. Cricinfo reported that his comments were made.
“I am shocked and utterly dismayed. Sammy said in his post-match news conference that “at the toss, we got to do what we wanted to do, which is to bowl first.” “Look, if we continue to exhibit this sort of fielding – we’ve spoken about it for the previous few games – and if you keep giving the other team’s top batsmen opportunities, the cricket gods will ultimately come up with you. We’ve talked about it for the last few games.
“And it did with us today, but on that surface [a target of] 269,” To reiterate, these are the aspects that we are working to improve. We have seen it happen in the past, and I want this team to progress in the manner that we saw it happen in the past. We need to learn to accept responsibility for our actions, which we did not do today. Today was a really bad day. Because of this, we had absolutely no right to victory today.”
Sammy claimed that West Indies still have a chance to win the race after their defeat to Zimbabwe on Saturday, despite the fact that their path to the World Cup this year has become more difficult as it progresses.
Sammy said, “I wouldn’t say it prevents [our qualification], but it certainly makes it more difficult.” It would be ideal to enter the Super Six tournament with four points. When we first set out from our house, we were well aware that this match would be of utmost significance to us. And once again, I’ll reiterate what I just stated about the manner we’ve been playing. I kept reminding the lads that we were successful despite not playing our best cricket but we continued winning games. Once again, we demanded a great deal of ourselves today. When you put on a performance of fielding as excellent as this one, then get yourself into a good position, and then take the game for granted, the gods of cricket will make you pay for it, and that is precisely what I am going to tell them in the locker room before the game. We did not earn the victory, and we did not play the game today with the intention of winning. As a result, we now have a lot of work to do, first and foremost to make it into the Super Six and compete against the other teams that we face.
We’ve made it a little bit harder for ourselves to go to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, but I’m not one to give up on anything. I’m going to keep motivating the guys and pushing them to improve because I can see that the pattern I’ve established around here is going to continue to develop. And I inform them that everyone who wants to acquire a ticket has to come and purchase that ticket at the ticket office in order to receive that ticket. Sammy said that there are a few of us who have decided against purchasing tickets for the moving train at this time.