Who is popular today?

ALTHOUGH BOASTING a fusion of experience and talent, West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard said his team was simply “not good enough” to get past Sri Lanka in their fourth ICC T20 World Cup match on Thursday.
Sri Lanka’s 20-run victory over the West Indies at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates saw the 2016 champions bow out of title contention, with their final match against Australia on Saturday.
Sent in to bat, Sri Lanka piled on a challenging target of 189 for three wickets with Charith Asalanka (68) and opening batsman Pathum Nissanka (51) top scoring.
In reply, West Indies batted poorly, with the exception of Shimron Hetmyer’s unbeaten 81 from 54 balls and vice-captain Nicholas Pooran’s 46 from 34 balls. No other West Indian batsman got to double-figures.
In the end, the two-time champions (2012, 2016) were restricted to 169 for eight wickets.
Thursday’s result meant West Indies lost three (England, South Africa and Sri Lanka) of their four Super 12 group one matches with their lone victory coming against Bangladesh.
After being whittled away for the 2021 tournament’s second lowest score thus far, 55 against England in their opening match, the maroon continued to struggle with the bat.
Roston Chase (nine), Evin Lewis (eight), Dwayne Bravo (two), Andre Russell (two), Chris Gayle (one) and Pollard, who was dismissed for a first ball duck, all failed fire when it mattered most.
“'It was a good batting track. If we had sort of restricted them to 170-175, I thought that was about par on this track. (We) gave them a couple of extra runs, and then we weren’t able to finish off the innings.
“The batting has struggled throughout the entire tournament, and it has been disappointing. Obviously, we've been singing the same song over and over and it's something that hasn't helped us - the way that we've batted throughout the tournament. We just have to accept that we weren't good enough,” said the WI skipper.
While he rues the team’s overall display, with the bat and in the field, he was still pleased with the squad’s bowling attack throughout the tourney.
He however, held in high regard the contributions of youngsters Pooran and Hetmyer, who stepped up to put on a valiant but unsuccessful fightback.
“I think that (the progress of Pooran and Hetmyer) is very important," Pollard said. "Last game, Pooran was full of confidence, and we just decided to sort of ride on that confidence and just try something different.
“I think he gave us a good start before and after the powerplay. Obviously, he wasn't able to carry on, but that is a positive sign for us in the right direction.”
On Hetmyer’s stellar knock, he said, “This is what we know Shimron can do. He comes in and manoeuvres the ball at the start. He’s a powerful individual and if we can get these sort of performances from these guys consistently, I think it will augur well for us in the future.
“But it's not just the glimpse, the task is to do that on a consistent basis. The glimpse is good enough and it's something we definitely look at going forward.”
Saturday’s match against Australia spells the end of Dwayne Bravo’s illustrious 18-year T20 International career. And maybe even 42-year old Chris Gayle’s. The 38-year old Bravo confirmed his retirement from T20I cricket after Thursday’s defeat.
Similarly, Pollard has been a talismanic T20 player across the globe but the 34-year-old confirmed he remains motivated to continue pushing on.
Pollard said, “We came to the World Cup to win and we haven't done that. Unless you're part of decisions that are going to get rid of me or fire me or retire me, as I stand right now, I have no intentions of not playing international cricket.
“One tournament or a couple of bad games don't make a summer. And for me personally, there's a lot of mileage in my legs as an individual.
He added, “We have a tendency as things go badly, the easiest thing is to blame or chop and change and do different things. But we accept that. I accept that and I take it on the chin and sometimes you have to absorb the pressure before you apply (it).
“But personally as an individual I've played a lot of good cricket in the last 18 months or two years or so. So, three-four games (are) not going to deter Kieron Pollard.”
The post We weren’t good enough, says Pollard after World Cup exit appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.