IND v WI 2019: Pollard critical of his bowlers after West Indies' loss in Hyderabad 

West Indies lost the first T20I in Hyderabad despite posting a mammoth 207/5.

West Indies found it really difficult to stop the run flow | AFP West Indies captain Kieron Pollard was effusive in praise for his batsmen who piled on a 200 plus total but criticised the bowlers for their lack of discipline as the team still lost against India in the first T20I of the ongoing three-match series in Hyderabad on Friday (December 6). 

Left-arm seamer Sheldon Cottrell (1/24) performed well but the rest of the visitors' bowling line-up went big as the likes of KL Rahul and Virat Kohli enjoyed facing them throughout the second half taking their side home by six wickets. 

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"I think we batted pretty well," Pollard told reporters. "We scored above 200 runs which more often than not you take that. But discipline in bowling and execution let us down tonight."

"We gave 23 extras, 14 or 15 of those wide deliveries, so when you look at that, those were extra balls and extra overs. When you give a class team like India these many extra deliveries, you are destined for trouble."

"No balls are something we stress on in terms of non-negotiable and we bowled a couple of them tonight. It's something we need to look on."

Pollard, however, did add there were a lot of positives to take forward to the second T20I in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday and hopefully bounce back in the series. "You can find negatives out of every situation but life is about positivity, life is about going forward and looking to improve," he said. "I must commend the batters the way they went out and executed."

"I don't think dew played much of a part. Obviously, it was a good batting track. That's what the fans want to see, they want runs, they want sixes and they got that. It's just a matter of execution. But it's a long series and it's a matter of looking at the positives and improve our game."

"(Shimron) Hetmyer getting back into runs, Brandon King scoring some runs, so it's exciting times for us. You won't get everything right overnight but it is a work in progress and I am a pretty contended captain."

Kohli scored an unbeaten 50-ball 94 during which he gave Kesrick Williams the taste of his own medicine after hitting him for a six, gesturing an imaginary notebook "tick off" as the bowler did against the Indian captain upon taking his wicket during one of the games on the 2017 tour of the Caribbean. 

Pollard responded to that saying: "He (Kohli) is an animated character, a great batsman and he continues to show the world that he is a world class batsman."

"His theatrics or whatever, it comes as part and parcel of the game. Sometimes you have to be like that to pump yourself to score runs and so I am fine with it."

Of course, this was the game where an extra TV umpire was placed to check the no balls and as it turned out, there were quite a few occasions where the bowlers were revealed to have stepped over. 

"It is what it is, some things you can't control. I can't control what they do or what rules they bring into cricket. So to me that's not a bother and I am not going to fuss about fight over that," Pollard said. 

"We need to control what's in our hands and that's playing cricket. We need to keep our foot behind the line, if we do that the umpire upstairs won't come into play."

(Inputs from PTI)

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 07 Dec, 2019

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