HOBART, Tasmania – West Indies head coach Phil Simmons was left struggling to explain his side’s shock exit from the Twenty20 World Cup, but pointed to inept batting performances as one of the reasons behind their poor showing.
Needing to beat Ireland here Friday, West Indies instead crashed to a heavy nine-wicket defeat to finish bottom of their four-team qualifying group, and miss out on a place in the all-important Super 12s.
“I think we haven’t been playing good enough cricket to be there as we would be there,” he lamented following the defeat at Bellerive Oval.
“We have the batsmen, the capabilities. We just haven’t been putting it together. Our bowlers are showing up nine out of 10 times but the batters haven’t really shown up.
“I think all the batters will be disappointed in what they’ve produced, not just at the World Cup but just before the World Cup and everything like that.”
He added: “We need to go back and batsmen need to take a look at themselves and work out how we score 170, 180 runs to be in the game because the bowlers are doing their job.”
West Indies managed only 145 for five from their 20 overs after choosing to bat first, with only Brandon King with an unbeaten 62 from 48 balls displaying any real enterprise.
Defending the modest target, West Indies were placed under early pressure by veteran opener Paul Stirling who top-scored with an unbeaten 66 from 48 deliveries, in anchoring two successive half-century stands which erased any doubt over the result.
Simmons was quick to dismiss any notion West Indies had underestimated Ireland.
“We’ve worked hard. We’ve prepared well,” he explained.
“It’s just on the day we haven’t done the correct things. We haven’t assessed the situation properly on the day and done what’s necessary for the situation.
“I don’t think there was no disrespect [for Ireland] on our part. We prepared like if we were playing anyone else.”
He added: “I don’t know. We’ve got to go back and look at our structure and how we play the game and make sure that when we come to competitions and when we play in bilateral series we are ready and able to do what’s necessary for each situation of the game.”
West Indies had on Monday lost their opening Group B qualifier to Scotland by 42 runs, leaving them needing to beat both Zimbabwe and Ireland in order to reach the Super 12s.
However, while they defeated Zimbabwe by 31 runs on Wednesday, Ireland proved too much for the two-time former champions.
Last year, West Indies also endured a chastening campaign at the 2021 T20 World Cup when they lost four of five first-round games to miss out on the semi-finals.
-CMC
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