West Indies Played it Safe, Should’ve Taken More Risks, Say Du Plessis and Kumble

Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis believes West Indies needed a harder push to beat India in the recent T20 World Cup clash. He thinks West Indies had a weak bowling lineup, so their batters needed to raise their performance to cover that gap and challenge India at Eden Gardens.

"When we look at West Indies, we spoke about them little bit lacking in the bowling department. So if you, as a team, know that's where you are slightly off, and then we're talking now at the highest level - they don't have a bad bowling attack, it's just you comparing the attack to India.” said Faf du Plessis.

"When your strength lies in your batting, you know that you're going to have to out-bat the opposition. Therefore, when you're in a position where you can pull the trigger on making sure you push that score a little bit more, you have to. It's just almost like a non-negotiable in order to be a team that wins the World Cup for them. They have to score 220-230, so that the bowling adds more pressure.” added Faf du Plessis.

Former Indian cricketer Anil Kumble also endorsed the opinion of Faf du Plessis, saying that West Indies should have played more proactively in the first innings to post a bigger total on the board.  

"I've always believed that in a T20 format, you need to use your resources if you're batting first, irrespective of who's in your batting lineup. You're better off scoring 196 for 9 than being 195 for 4. I understand that the powerplay didn't go the skipper's [Shai Hope] way; he was struggling a bit, but the team score was going at a fast pace.” said Anil Kumble.

"Beyond that, once you know that you have ten wickets in hand after the powerplay, only 14 overs, and some serious hitting power still in your dugout, you need to go harder, even if you lose a couple of wickets." added Anil Kumble.