After losing their second T20I World Cup 2021 encounter by 8 wickets to South Africa on Tuesday, Kieron Pollard defended his men, saying they gave it their all and that he would not ‘throw them under the bus.’ West Indies batted first and scored 143 runs in 20 overs for the cost of eight wickets.
West Indies openers Lendl Simmons and Evin Lewis cobbled together 73 runs off 63 balls after being called in to bat first, until the latter exited for a 35-ball 56. Nicholas Pooran came in next, but he only scored two runs as Keshav Maharaj claimed his second wicket of the game.
Following Simmons’ (16 off 35) stuttering innings, the Caribbean side was reduced to 89 for 3 in 13.2 overs. West Indies’ innings concluded at 143/8 in 8 overs, with Chris Gayle (12 off 12) and Andre Russell (5 off 4), Shimron Hetmyer (1 off 2), and Dwayne Bravo (8 off 5) all failing. Pollard was his team’s second-highest run scorer (26 off 20).
Despite the absence of Quinton de Kock, who pulled out of the match for “personal reasons,” South Africa cruised through the chase, winning by 8 wickets with 16 balls to spare.
In the run chase, Reeza Hendrics (39 0ff 30), Rassie Van Der Dussen (43* off 51), and Aiden Markram (51* off 26) all performed admirably.
While defending Simmons’s sluggish batting, Pollard pointed out that Dussen’s knock was also sluggish. He stated that the West Indies must first win their first match before considering the Net Run Rate (NRR).
“Obviously, it’s just a question of not scoring enough runs.” Today has been a letdown. I anticipated we’d take the first six overs and end up with a score of 43 without a loss. We wanted to maintain our momentum, but we dropped a few of wickets. It was a sort of stop-and-go situation. [Regarding Simmons] These things happen, and certainly, he was stranded.
“He was there after 6 overs, and we wanted to bat a few more overs without losing wickets.” You’re not going to get me here by throwing my teammates under the bus, though. They’re making an effort. Rassie came out and played the same for them at the conclusion of the day. It was a dismal total batting effort, as the team failed to reach 160 runs. “We have to win first before we think about the net run rate,” Pollard remarked after the game.
On Friday, the West Indies will face Bangladesh.
