South Africa beating not a reason to panic — Chase

PAARL, South Africa (CMC):

West Indies stand-in T20 captain Roston Chase isn’t fazed by their disappointing start to their series against South Africa, having revealed that implementing and executing strategies are the team’s main focus as they prepare for the T20 World Cup.

The Windies were thrashed by nine wickets in the opener of the three-match series at Boland Park on Tuesday, with the hosts cruising to 176 for one in 17.5 overs in response to the visitors’ total of 173 for seven.

However, speaking in a press conference after the match, Chase, who stood in for regular skipper Shai Hope, said the team was using their final series before next month’s World Cup to fine-tune certain aspects of their game.

He said while winning was always the objective, being able to execute their plans was of paramount importance.

“I think we’re just trying to get the combinations and the tactics and the strategies right going into the World Cup.

“I mean, it’s going to be different conditions when we get to India. But I still think that once we play here we can still get a good idea of what we’re looking to do, what we want to do, and put the people in the right places to execute those roles.” Chase said.

He admitted that the Windies were not up to par with either bat or ball in the first match.

With the second match slated to be held today, Chase said the players would continue to work on improving all aspects of their game.

“Firstly, I thought we were probably 15 to 20 runs short [in the opener]. We were initially looking for 190-195, so I thought we were short in the batting. And then to start the bowling in the Power Play, we didn’t have the best of starts; and it was hard to pull back the game from there, because the batters just had to knock around the ball and they didn’t have to take too many risks to keep up with the run rate after that Power Play,” Chase said.

“I think we will prepare the same way we’ve been preparing for this match, but I think we just need to have a bit more plans in the Power Play to the batters.

“And I mean, it’s just for the batters to continue. I think that we had starts and we had a decent start in our Power Play, but we lost too many wickets at crucial stages. When we had the momentum going in our favour, we got out and put the game back into South Africa’s hands, and I think that slowed us down a lot,” he added.