"Not all doom and gloom" - Kieron Pollard after India whitewash West Indies in ODI, T20I series
West Indies captain Kieron Pollard focussed on the positives as India beat them in the third and final T20 International (T20I) on Sunday to complete a 3-0 series whitewash.
This result, added to the drubbing in the ODI series by the same margin, meant that West Indies did not win a single match in the limited overs tour of India.
However, Pollard said that they were close on more than a couple of occasions in the two series.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, he said:
"We haven't won a game but Nicholas (Pooran) has shown his consistency. The guys picked themselves up at any given point in time. Rovman Powell also showed that he's got enough to be a part of the white ball team as well."
He went on to add:
"Coming to India is going to be difficult but the way the boys responded was good on our part. From the ODI perspective, we had chances to win that series, bowling them out for 230-odd in second game and last game, so it is not all doom and gloom. From our T20 perspective, we had the experience but didn't get the job done."
Speaking about the long term, Pollard said they need to play as much cricket as possible going into the 2022 T20 World Cup.
"With the World Cup eight months away, the more cricket these guys play, the better they are going to get," he said.
"Had a good start with the bat but failed to capitalise" - Kieron Pollard
West Indies got off to a good start with the ball after electing to field at the toss, but a 91-run partnership between Suryakumar Yadav and Venkatesh Iyer saw India power through to a total of 184/5.
Speaking about their efforts with the ball, Kieron Pollard said:
"We were on top of the game till about the 15th over. We gave away 85 runs in the last 5 overs and gave them the momentum."
Then, in their chase, West Indies lost two early wickets but did not let it slow them down, with Nicholas Pooran and Rovman Powell impressing once again, putting on a 47-run stand before Harshal Patel got the latter's wicket.
While Pooran went on to hit his third consecutive half-century in the series, the Windies lost wickets at regular intervals at the other end until Romario Shepherd played a nifty cameo of 29 off 21.
Pooran eventually fell for 61 off 47 and some good death bowling meant the lower order was not able to chase down the target as the Caribbean outfit fell short by 17 runs in the end.
Speaking about their batting display, Pollard said:
"We had a good start with the bat but failed to capitalize on it."
Nicholas Pooran was undoubtedly West Indies' greatest takeaway from the series, with the young gloveman hitting half-centuries in all the T20Is.