—Windies coach Simmons cautions batsmen not to be overly tentative against spinners
(SPORTS MAX) West Indies coach, Phil Simmons, believes batsmen must avoid the temptation of being too tentative in looking to navigate the Sri Lanka spin attack, as the team looks to bounce back in the third and decisive T20 international, on Sunday.
The Windies took the opening match of the series with a comfortable four-wicket win, with 41 balls remaining. On Friday, however, Sri Lanka came roaring back to claim the second match after a star performance from the team’s spinners.
Lakshan Sandakan and Wanidu Hasaranga proved particularly hard to negotiate, each claiming three wickets, with Sandakan boasting a miserly economy rate of 2.73. In pursuit of Sri Lanka’s 160 for 6, the Windies were restricted before being bundled out of 116. Things had not gone smoothly against the spin in the first match, despite the result, with Akila Danajaya claiming a four-for, including a third over hat-trick before being taken apart by Windies captain Kieron Pollard who smashed 6 sixes off his over. The coach believes a similar approach could pay dividends in the decider.
“The key is playing them in the right way. You can’t be too tentative when you are playing against good spinners,” Simmons told members of the media via a Zoom press conference on Saturday.
“We have to still go out there and look to score against them and playing cricket how we know how to play cricket,” he added.
“All the guys who played IPL would have played against these spinners or even better spinners and done well, so that is what we have to make sure we do tomorrow.”
