6 hours ago
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GUWAHATI, India – West Indies batting coach Floyd Reifer is optimistic that the side can turn around their fortunes in Wednesday’s second One Day International against India, once their batters are more consistent.
The Windies lost Sunday’s opening match by eight wickets and now need to conjure a victory at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium if they are to have any chance of winning the three-match series.
They wasted a superb start by openers Justin Greaves, who scored a maiden ODI century and John Campbell, who scored a half century during a 135-run stand.
From a position of 176 for one after 30 overs, the visitors lost five wickets for 22 runs to slump to 198 for five, and despite getting up to 299 for seven in 50 overs at Greenfield International Stadium, were 50 to 60 runs short of posting a competitive total.
Virat Kohli and captain Shubman Gill then blasted centuries to pilot India to 300 for two in 41.4 overs.
Speaking during a pre-match press conference on Tuesday, Reifer admitted that the regional side’s batters let them down during the middle phase of the game.
“We had a lot of positives. Obviously, the start that we had in terms of the 85-run partnership in the first 10 overs and the openers took that along to 135. [Justin] Greaves got a 100, John [Campbell] got a 50.
“In terms of the middle-order batting, I thought [Amir] Jangoo played really well in terms of getting his 50 in 30-something balls, so we got a lot of positives coming out of the last game, it’s just for us now to be consistent for a bit longer batting those middle overs,” Reifer said.
“…Batting in the middle overs is something that we’re continuing to work on and we want to get really consistent with that. We’re aiming to get back that to that year we had in 2024/2025 when we were scoring at six plus runs an over in the middle overs, but it’s a work in progress.
“Obviously batting spin the guys have improved, but there’s still a long way to go for us,” he added.
Reifer said while it was preferable to chase in India, he maintained that if the West Indies were to be competitive, a total in excess of 35o was required if batting first.
“This ground is a high scoring ground. When you’re batting in India chasing is always a good option, some dew may come into play, but it doesn’t matter if you’re batting first or batting last because if you bat first you need to put a good total on the board.
“In ODI cricket now, the level has raised and the game is evolving to where teams are looking to score 360 plus, so if you bat first on good pitches you will have to be aiming for 360,” Reifer said.
CMC
English (US) ·