KINGSTON, Ja­maica – A mis­fir­ing top or­der has left West In­dies with is­sues to re­solve ahead of Sun­day’s de­ci­sive third One-Day In­ter­na­tion­al against Ire­land, and cap­tain Kieron Pol­lard is not op­posed to try­ing new com­bi­na­tions as his side take aim at an im­por­tant se­ries win.

In both match­es at Sabi­na Park so far, the Caribbean side has suf­fered ear­ly col­laps­es, slump­ing to 62 for four in 19th-over in the open­ing ODI and then 111 for sev­en in the 34th over, be­fore re­cov­er­ing on both oc­ca­sions to get be­hind the 200-run mark.

And with the usu­al­ly pro­lif­ic Shai Hope, new­com­er Justin Greaves, Nicholas Pooran and Ros­ton Chase all fail­ing in both games, Pol­lard said thought would be giv­en to how best to im­prove the top or­der for the de­cider.

“It’s not some­thing we have talked about just yet … but if that is some­thing that af­ter con­sid­er­a­tion and af­ter con­sul­ta­tion it’s some­thing we think is best, then it’s some­thing that we have to do,” Pol­lard said.

“The de­f­i­n­i­tion of in­san­i­ty is do­ing the same things over and over [and ex­pect­ing a dif­fer­ent re­sult] so let’s see what hap­pens over the next cou­ple days.”

He added: “There are things to work on in that dress­ing room but I think we need to put the pieces of the puz­zle to­geth­er pret­ty quick­ly from a bat­ting per­spec­tive.”

It was Pol­lard’s ro­bust 69 along with debu­tant Shamarh Brooks’s silky 93 that hauled West In­dies out of trou­ble in the first ODI, the pair adding a Sabi­na Park record fifth-wick­et stand of 155, to pow­er their side to 269 and a 24-run win in the end.

And though Brooks chipped in with 43 in the sec­ond match on Thurs­day, Pol­lard man­aged on­ly one, and it was left to the rook­ie pair of Ro­mario Shep­herd (50) and Odean Smith (46) to bail West In­dies out of trou­ble.

Shep­herd smashed sev­en fours in a 41-ball knock while Smith belt­ed two fours and five six­es in a 19-ball stun­ner, the duo putting on a cru­cial 58 for the ninth wick­et.

While hail­ing both play­ers, Pol­lard stressed it was im­por­tant the spe­cial­ist bats­men took re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for their per­for­mances.

“Spe­cial praise must go to Ro­mario Shep­herd and Odean Smith,” not­ed Pol­lard.

“These guys have got­ten an op­por­tu­ni­ty to play crick­et in the in­ter­na­tion­al are­na and they’re com­ing out and show­ing the de­ter­mi­na­tion and the hunger.

“Odean Smith in that sit­u­a­tion I told him ‘just play your nat­ur­al game’, and he went out and showed what he can do.

“Shep­pie, even when Odean came you saw the bats­man­ship, he took a back step and let Odean go for it.”

He added: “As an in­di­vid­ual and a bat­ter, I take it on my chest – fail­ing in this game – but I guess the rest of the guys, they have to do that [as well].”

(CMC)