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Sunday, July 27, 2025

Hosts left mulling changes for decider after top order issues

by

Sports Desk
1289 days ago
20220115
West Indies batsman Romario Shepherd, right, walks towards his partner Odean Smith after hitting a six during the second One Day International (ODI) against Ireland on Thursday at Sabina Park, Jamaica. Both men shared in a 58-run partnership that helped the West Indies recover from a middle order collapse. Shepherd scored 50 runs and Smith 46.

West Indies batsman Romario Shepherd, right, walks towards his partner Odean Smith after hitting a six during the second One Day International (ODI) against Ireland on Thursday at Sabina Park, Jamaica. Both men shared in a 58-run partnership that helped the West Indies recover from a middle order collapse. Shepherd scored 50 runs and Smith 46.

CWI Media

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)


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