Hope not concerned with losing T20 series to Proteas

CENTURION, South Africa (CMC):

West Indies T20 captain Shai Hope isn’t bothered that the West Indies have lost successive matches to surrender their T20I series to South Africa.

Following their embarrassing nine-wicket loss to the Proteas in Tuesday’s opener, the Windies put in a better effort in the second match on Thursday but still went down by seven wickets at SuperSport Park to fall behind 0-2 in the three-match series.

The regional team did well to get up to 221 for four in their 20 overs, but Quinton de Kock blasted a century to carry the home side to 225 for three in 17.3 overs.

Speaking in a post-match press conference, Hope said the West Indies continued to focus on preparing for the upcoming T20 World Cup.

“Like I always say, you have to look at the positives, especially when you’re going into a World Cup and that’s what really and truly this series is.

“It’s about building that momentum going into the World Cup, making some tweaks, trying to finalise and fine-tune some areas,” Hope said.

“But I thought the guys played really well in the power play. It’s exactly what we’re trying to get out of the opening batters and the ones to follow. We just have to build from that and continue to get as strong as we can.”

With the final T20I set to be played on Saturday in Johannesburg, Hope said while winning was always the objective, the team would be continuing to ready themselves for the February 7 to March 8 World Cup.

“We’re going to keep fine-tuning. As much as we want to win, and we obviously want to win every single game that we play and we want to win the series, it’s more so about getting the right formula, understanding what’s necessary to be successful in that World Cup and continue getting better as a team.

“We’re still fine-tuning as I said, but we just have to keep our spirits high and find ways to keep getting better and improving every single time,” Hope said.