Harare [Zimbabwe], July 7 : West Indies skipper Shai Hope revealed that their failure to take up catches in the second innings and put up runs on the board hurt their chances massively in their 8-wicket defeat against Sri Lanka on Friday in the Cricket World Cup Qualifier.
Hope admitted that his side failed to put up a competitive score but their failure to claim the opportunities when the chances arrived added salt on their wounds. West Indies dropped at least 4 catches while defending their total of 243.
"Not enough runs on the board. Batting first here is always a challenge with a bit of moisture around and we didn't ball. Happy that he (Carty) got some runs, know that he is capable of scoring big runs. Catches let us down. Must commend our bowlers for the fight they showed. We just have to look ahead and try to improve. Communication is key and we gotta get better from here," Hope said in the post-match presentation.
Even Sri Lanka dropped a couple of chances that came their way, but they were able to compensate it with their exceptional spin bowling efforts.
Windies top order had no answer in reply to the spin of Maheesh Theekshana, with Brandon King, Shamarh Brooks and skipper Shai Hope all perishing by his hands of him.
Matheesha Pathirana and Dushmantha Hemantha entered the game, by picking up the wickets of dangerous batters Johnson Charles and Nicholas Pooran.
West Indies further received blows against spin as Sahan Arachchige cleaned up Kyle Mayers, which was followed by Hemantha scalping his second by trapping Roston Chase in front of the stumps for a score of 1.
This left a massive task on the upcoming batters Keacy Carty and Romario Shepherd. West Indies were stuck at 127/7 in the 30th over. Carty first paired with Shepherd to take West Indies past the 150-run mark and then brought up his half-century. Even as wickets continued to fall at the other end, Carty pressed on to take his team towards a respectable total.
He was eventually the last wicket to fall on a score of 87 with West Indies getting bowled out for a total of 243. Theekshana was the pick of the bowlers for Sri Lanka with impressive figures of 4/34.
Even after opting to keep Wanindu Hasaranga and Dhananjaya de Silva out of the playing XI, Sri Lanka still managed to run riots with the ball.
Brief Scores: West Indies 243 (Keacy Carty 87(96), Johnson Charles 39(38) and Maheesh Theekshana 4/34) vs Sri Lanka 244/2 (Pathum Nissanka 104(113), Dimuth Karunaratne 83(92) and Kevin Sinclair 1/52).
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