Pooran: Small fixes needed for second T20

West Indies vice-captain Nicholas Pooran says the regional side just needs to adjust some parts of its batting to compete better against India in today’s second Twenty20 International.

Pooran was the standout player with the bat in Wednesday’s six-wicket loss in the opening T20 in Kolkata. His knock of 61 from 43 balls helped the visitors to post 157 for seven in their allotted 20 overs.

The left-hander seems to be growing into his role batting at number three as he hit four fours and five sixes as he shared in two 40+plus partnerships with first Kyle Mayers and then captain Kieron Pollard.

Mayers made 31 and Pollard 24 not out against two wickets for 17 runs from debutant Ravi Bishnoi and two for 37 from Harshal Patel.

Captain Rohit Sharma hit a top score of 40, Ishan Kishan made 35, and Suryakumar Yadav 34 not out to lead the Indians to 162 for four in 18.5 overs.

According to Pooran, they fell 10 to 15 runs short.

“A score of 175 would have been perfect on that track. I can’t fault the bowlers. As batsmen, we needed to play certain overs in the game a bit smarter,” said Pooran.

Like Pooran, captain Pollard shared the same sentiment that a few more runs could have made a big difference.

“It was a good game of cricket overall. Getting it down to the 19th over was good on the part of the bowlers. If I’m being honest, between overs 6 to 15 we scored too few runs. We were 15-20 runs short, but if you take early wickets, you can put them under pressure.

In the meantime, Pooran highlighted that not many changes needed to be made for today’s second match.

“Our batting needs to be better. We played their spinners fairly well, and it’s just for us to continue that and build more partnerships. We must make sure that we negate the spinners a bit more because we were caught in two minds in the first game whether to attack or defend. These things are small fixes, but we have to execute our plans,” added Pooran.

Today’s match bowls off at 8:30 a.m. (Jamaica time), with India hot favourites to go 2-0 up in the three-match series.