MULTAN – Strokemaker Shamarh Brooks has backed West Indies to put up another sterling fight in Friday’s second One-Day International against Pakistan but conceded the searing heat in Multan could be a factor in the Caribbean side’s performance.
West Indies went down by five wickets in Wednesday’s opener in 45 degree Celsius heat at Multan Cricket Stadium in the east-central Pakistan city but not before posting a 300-plus total – their second in as many outings following the tour of the Netherlands.
Brooks, who scored 70 in that encounter, said it was important West Indies repeated the critical elements from the first game.
“Winning is a habit and we’ve just come off a very good tour of Netherlands and the guys are in good spirits,” the right-hander said.
“And to come into the first game and to put up a total of 305, it speaks volumes to the progress we’ve been making over the last five, six months. To come back and do it again [in the second ODI] we’ve just got to trust the process.
“We’ve been working very hard as a team, a lot of discussion has been going on about our games and once we go out there and apply what we’re supposed to do, I think we’ll definitely come out with another good game in this second ODI.”
West Indies played the Netherlands series in chilly temperatures which dipped as low as ten degrees Celsius so the humid conditions in Multan have struck a stark contrast.
After navigating 42 degree temperatures on Thursday, West Indies will deal with a high of 40 degrees for Friday’s contest, and Brooks said it was important to conserve energy in the field.
“We lost Kyle (Mayers) early [in the first ODI] so Shai (Hope) and I had a pretty good partnership and we realised it was actually pretty hard in the first half-an-hour of batting,” Brooks explained.
“Our communication was good; we decided that when it was a sure single we wouldn’t push as hard and try to save as much energy, to take it as deep as possible for the team.
“But it has been pretty challenging. Coming on to the back end [of the day] it cools down a bit – I’m not saying it gets much much easier – but it’s cooler than that first session of play.”
He added: “But I think the guys did exceptionally well in terms of how they held up coming from the contrasting conditions in the Netherlands. I think we’ll be fine going into this next game.”
Hope struck his 12th ODI hundred in the series opener but captain Babar Azam responded with his 17th to lay the foundation for the hosts’ win.
The matches are day/night affairs bowling off at 4 pm (7 am T&T time).
CMC