Sammy: Talk is cheap

West Indies skipper Darren Sammy, responding to a jibe made by Australian all rounder James Faulkner before their World T20 clash in Dhaka, Bangladesh yesterday said: “Talk is cheap.” Sammy smoked Faulkner for two sixes in the last over to take the West Indies to a wonderful six-wicket victory, to stay alive in the tournament. West Indies lost their first game against India, responded with a crushing win over Bangladesh and now with the win against Australia, they need to defeat Pakistan in their last game next Tuesday to be certain of a place in the semifinals.

Leading up to the clash Faulkner said he did not like the West Indies. Sammy, speaking after the win, said: “Talk is cheap, let him continue talking. He would not like us more now, after that defeat. “As I said before, we rather let our bats do the talking and that we did out there to win this match. We had not focussed a lot on what he said going into the match but we did speak about it and I can tell you that it did serve as motivation for us. We wanted to go out there and beat them and we did, so he might want to continue talking after this defeat.” Sammy said he was looking to get under the ball in the last over and was able to do that hence hitting the two sixes to win the match. “Well they say we are a six-hitting team, so with 12 needed I told myself I needed to get under the ball to hit it for six and this I did. Dwayne Bravo was with me and he played a wonderful innings as well to get us home.’

Sammy ended on 34 not out off 13 balls, while Bravo made 27 not out off 12 balls, to get the unbelievable win. Looking ahead, Sammy said the batting of Gayle is an ominous sign for teams they have to meet still. “I said Chris was hitting the ball well and you saw that tonight. He has been spending time in the middle and now playing well, teams must be concerned.” Sammy’s opposite number George Bailey said his team lost the game because they did not make enough runs. “I thought that we scraped to 180-odd and although this was pleasing, it was not what could have won us the game. We cannot just place the blame on the bowlers, we have to take blame as batsmen as well. The first six of us I think played ordinary shots or shots that were not required at the time and in the end we did not get the score we required.” Bailey says it will be very difficult for Australia to qualify for this position now. “When we looked at the draw we told ourselves that probably one loss and we could go through but now with two losses it is very difficult. I have not crunched the situation as yet but what I can say is that we are in a very difficult situation.”