WEST Indies captain Rovman Powell said his team will need to find another gear in their second match of the International Cricket Council T20 World Cup, after a nervous win over Papua New Guinea (PNG) in their opening Group C match on Sunday.
West Indies, chasing a modest 137 for victory at Providence Stadium in Guyana, lost wickets regularly and were shockingly reduced to 97/5 after 16 overs at one stage. However, Roston Chase and Andre Russell settled nerves with a 40-run unbroken partnership as West Indies won by five wickets.
"Yes, definitely (a tough game). Credit has be given to PNG," Powell said after the match. "I think their plans were simple and they played some good cricket. It's important to get two points, it's important to start well and that's what we did."
He said West Indies must improve as the tournament progresses. "I think we can be better in all three departments. We have seen this team play some very good cricket.
"Today, I would not say it was an off day, but we weren't quite up to the straps of the level we want to play. I think we are 60, 70 per cent there...Hopefully we can correct that for the second game."
West Indies will be in action again when they face Uganda at Providence on Saturday at 8.30 pm.
With West Indies needing 40 runs off 24 deliveries, Papua New Guinea would have been hoping to pull off an upset over the two-time World Cup winners.
Chase, with a strong showing in last month's three-match series against South Africa, had other ideas and struck a composed unbeaten 42 off 27 balls.
Three boundaries in the 18th over by Chase off Papua New Guinea skipper Assad Vala helped get the chase back on track. The Barbadian hit two fours and one six and by the end of the 18th over, the equation was simply 13 runs needed off 12 balls.
West Indies made the win look comfortable in the end, getting to 137/5 in 19 overs. Russell was 15 not out off 14 deliveries. Vala, despite conceding 18 runs in the 18th over, was the best bowler for Papua New Guinea with 2/28 in four overs.
The West Indies innings got off to the worst possible start as Johnson Charles was given out leg before for "duck" in the first ball of the second over. It could have been two wickets down early on, but Papua New Guinea chose not to review a leg-before decision which would have sent Nicholas Pooran back to the pavilion for zero.
Rain interrupted play for 20 minutes with West Indies 8/1 after 1.4 overs.
When play resumed, opener Brandon King played aggressively racing to 24 off 13 balls with all his runs coming in fours. At the other end, Pooran did not look himself as he took 16 balls to get his first boundary.
Pooran came into the World Cup in scintillating form, cracking 499 runs in the 2024 Indian Premier League for Lucknow Super Giants at an average of over 60. In the sixth over, Pooran struck Sese Bau for three consecutive boundaries as West Indies went past 50.
However, a couple tight overs followed and Pooran, attempting to increase the scoring rate, was caught at long on by Tony Ura
