Rampaul urges Windies bowlers to deliver in second India T20I clash

RANCHI, India (CMC) — Bowling coach Ravi Rampaul says the key to a West Indies victory against India in their ongoing T20I series rests with the team’s bowlers. His comments have come following the regional side’s eight-wicket defeat in Tuesday’s opener, with their bowlers once again being put to the sword by India’s batters. Half-centuries by captain Shai Hope and Sherfane Rutherford helped the Windies reach 171 in 19.1 overs, but Indian captain Shreyas Iyer smashed an unbeaten 102 off 43 balls to propel his side to 172 for two in just 14.4 overs at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium. With the second game in the five-match series switching to the JSCA International Stadium Complex, Rampaul said they expected conditions to continue to favour batters. Speaking during a prematch press conference on Wednesday, Rampaul said the bowling unit needed to be more consistent and accurate in their execution. He said even though it was a young, inexperienced bowling group, they had the ability to stifle Indian’s batters. “If you look at our T20I bowling line up it’s a young bowling line-up; guys haven’t played more than 15 or 20 T20 internationals, and it just boils down to their experience and the execution of their plans. We weren’t good enough to execute for longer periods during the game. “We definitely saw in the last game that the second innings was better for batting with the dew that was presented. Again, for our bowlers it’s just about executing our plans as a bowling group. We see that when we do execute, we get opportunities to take wickets, so it’s just about building that confidence as a bowling group knowing that the conditions will be the same throughout India,” Rampaul said. He said, while the West Indies’ batters did well to get up to their eventual total in the opening T20I, they needed to avoid losing wickets in “clusters” if they were to put large scores on the board. “It’s something that has been plaguing us in the past, losing wickets in clusters, and it happened again. “We see when that happens we struggle a little bit in the middle. The pitch did offer a little turn for the spinners in the middle, but those three wickets that we lost really set us back, but I think that we made it back the end as a batting group,” Rampaul said.