Live Update: Shamar Springer reveals West Indies’ plan B was to go defensive against Abhishek Sharma. The West Indies batter explains the tactical proach after India’s 14-run win in the third T20I in Indore.
Shamar Springer reveals West Indies’ plan B to defend against Abhishek Sharma (Source: BCCI on India scored 223 runs while the West Indies scored 209 for seven runs. The game featured a dominant batting performance from India’s opening order, with Abhishek Sharma’s explosive innings setting the tone for the home team’s total score.
Shamar Springer, the West Indies batter who scored 35 runs with no outs from 11 balls, spoke to reporters after the game about his team’s tactical proach to the contest. Springer explained the changes West Indies tried against Abhishek, who had been in exceonal form throughout the series. “He is a world-class player.
Kudos to him, for sure. But I think our plan B is to be as defensive as possible and try to give him singles and deuces, sometimes runs. Nothing too extravagant,” Springer was quoted as saying by NDTV Sports.
“It was just a matter of beating him back and being as impressive as possible. Because you can’t really have much control here. The wickets are so good and these players are world class players and they are the best for a reason.
So there’s not really much you can do other than be defensive,” he added. Abhishek Sharma scored 69 off 30 balls and hit six fours and five sixes to register his record 14th T20I half-century. More importantly, he became the fastest batsman in terms of the number of balls faced and completed 2,000 T20I runs.
His 108-run second-wicket partnership with Ishan Kishan, who contributed 37 from 18 deliveries, proved crucial in building India’s total. Springer admitted that the West Indies believed the target was achievable and they could have played the game closer. Despite their own explosive finish with four sixes and two fours, the West Indies fell behind by 14 runs.
Springer attributed the loss to terrain conditions and weather factors rather than tactical errors. “I guess we missed a few balls. But congratulations to the (Indian) bowlers.
They actually did pretty well. But there were a few balls that we could have put away and maybe brought the game a little closer. They kind of suffocated us and gave us too many (many) runs in the end.
We thought the wicket would play a little better. The ball stayed a little deeper than expected. Also, we thought there would be some dew in the second half, but that really wasn’t the case.
The nature of the wicket was a bit low and the Indian bowlers made much better use of it,” Springer said. When asked about Shai Hope’s early dismissal for five runs, Springer dismissed the suggestion that the club’s early exit from the West Indies had had a cascading negative impact on the team’s batting performance. Springer argued that individual shots did not determine the overall outcome of the pursuit.
“I don’t think so. We have great depth. We are back in the middle.
Today wasn’t as good. This was an opportunity for someone else to get involved. I mean, we failed by 14 points.
“If we had scored six more points in the middle of the game and on the power play in both phases, we probably could have recovered from that,” Springer said.
