West Indies must defend low scores as well: Law

HARARE: The West Indies coach Stuart Law has said his side would have to be smarter in approach in the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2018.

“It is not going to be making 300 plus and then bowling teams out. It is going to be working out how to get to 180 to 220 and then deciding how to get the 10 wickets,” said Law in Harare on Friday.

“We do target 300-plus as we found in New Zealand, that’s probably a benchmark score these days in One-Day Internationals. Here, we have to lower that target just to make sure we are safe to play better cricket or make better decisions out in the middle and get the job done,” he added.

The West Indies, along with Afghanistan, Ireland and Zimbabwe, had missed out on automatic qualification for the World Cup 2019 as they finished outside the top eight on the ICC ODI Team Rankings on September 30, 2017, the cut-off date.

The four sides have been joined by Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Nepal, Scotland, Papua New Guinea and the United Arab Emirates.The ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier begins on Sunday (tomorrow). The West Indies will play their opening match against the UAE, the side which nearly beat them in the second warm-up match on Thursday.

“The strength of a lot of Associate teams is based around spin and the quicks they have seem to be pretty reasonable as well. We can’t just go out and blast and dominate against these attacks. We have to be a little smarter to go about it,” said Law, who played one Test and 54 ODIs for Australia from 1994 to 1999.

“Our bowlers have been consistently taking wickets upfront and we have a good mix of off-spin, left-arm spin and leg-spin. I think it is a well-balanced attack.“Our quicks are a bit more capable of getting the ball up at high speed, which the Associates don’t probably get to see a lot of and this is something that we can use to our advantage. As the event will progress, the wickets will spin more and we have quality spinners as well,” said the coach.

Law valued the presence of stalwarts like Chris Gayle, Marlon Samuels and Nikita Miller in the side saying it was up to the youngsters to observe and learn from these players. “You can’t buy experience on a shelf. You need these guys in these tough conditions to stand up as well and guide the youngsters through the difficult periods. Then it is up to the younger or less experienced players to listen, heed the advice and carry forward into their game,” he added.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan coach Phil Simmons said: “I am not putting the ‘favourites’ tag on me. We have just come here to play cricket, we need to play proper cricket and win this tournament.”

Simmons, who played 26 Tests and 143 ODIs for the West Indies from 1987 to 1999, said he was one of those who wanted to win all the time. “So, the more we will win, the easier it will get for us in the Super Six stage. You win the Super Six stage, you are in the World Cup as well as in the final. That’s how we look at it.”

Afghanistan will take on Scotland in their opening match at the Bulawayo Athletic Club on Sunday and Simmons admitted he was not fully satisfied with his side’s performance in the warm-up matches.“We haven’t done a lot of things we wanted to do in the warm-up matches. But the boys have been sharp in Sharjah and I am sure the sharpness is still there, maybe a bit of jet-lag but we will get there.”