With the chance to tie the series on the line, West Indies white-ball captain Shai Hope wants his troops to deliver an all-around performance when they take on New Zealand in the fifth and final T20I here on Thursday.
The regional team got off to the perfect start in the series, winning the opener by seven runs before losing the next two matches in agonising fashion by three runs and nine runs, respectively, to fall behind 2-1.
With Sunday’s fourth T20I ending in a no-result, it means the West Indies have everything to play for in Thursday’s clash, with victory assuring them a share of the spoils.
Speaking during a pre-match press conference on Wednesday, Hope said it was important to end the series on a winning note.
“The unfortunate reality is that we can’t win the series because of that last game that was rained out, but we’ve still put ourselves in a position to finish on square terms, which is something when you go to foreign conditions in foreign places, sometimes you have to take what you get.”
“But certainly 2-2 would look better than 3-1 to New Zealand, so that’s something that we are certainly hoping for . . . . We have a very big game tomorrow and it’s important that we finish this series very strong, especially here in these conditions . . . .” Hope said.
He admitted though, that the Windies’ top order had failed to fire so far in the series.
Hope said with the lower order having done most of the heavy lifting thus far, he was banking on the top order to come good this time around.
“Myself included, we have to raise our hands at the top. You see how important the new ball is for the New Zealand bowlers when you allow them to break through that top order and open up the middle order as well, then it becomes more difficult to set that big score that you want.”
“But we must take our hats off for the guys at the lower end. They have been tremendous throughout the entire series, from Rovman all the way down to Shepherd and Shamar Springer in the third game,” Hope conceded.
“As long as we tick that box at the top and don’t let them through our top order, I think with the power that we possess, we can be dangerous for any team, not just New Zealand. So, we’ve got that to fix tomorrow from the top order standpoint and then hopefully we can put together a very complete and strong game as a unit.”
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