[www.inewsguyana.com] – Darren Sammy has expressed disappointment with the manner in which his side exited this year’s world T20 Tournament in Bangladesh on Thursday, April 03.
According to the skipper, to be put out via the Duckworth Lewis method in a semi Final as defending champions is disheartening, but his side will head right back to work preparing for the next Installment of the Tournament.
“It’s disappointing to come out of the tournament like this but credit to Sri Lanka. They won the toss, batted first. Probably they knew that some weather was around. But we have had a good run in this tournament, it is just sad that we got knocked out by the D/L system. But that’s life. You move on and we will start planning for the next World T20 ,said the St. Lucian.
Sammy retained his humor however by saying that the Sri Lankans may have had the almighty on their side attempting to give them the title which eluded them in 2012.
“I took it like you know what, we have won a (World T20). We are a praying team, we know God normally answers our prayers but today, I guess two gentlemen (Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, who are bidding adieu to T20 International cricket after this tournament) who have played for Sri Lanka, give a lot not only to Sri Lanka cricket but cricket on the whole, I guess the Almighty wants them to leave on a high. Probably that’s the reason why god put a hand in this match. I am sure I will have another shot at playing the World T20 and we are looking forward to winning it again in the near future.”
West Indies had laboured to 80 for 4 in 13.5 overs, chasing 161 for victory in the first semifinal against Sri Lanka on Thursday night when the skies opened up with hail and rain, making the surface unplayable and giving Sri Lanka victory by 27 runs.
Nonetheless when the rains came, Sammy believed that they could have chased down 81 runs in 36 balls.
“We still had the belief that we could get 12 runs an over in the last six, we have been doing that in this tournament. It is just disappointing but there is nothing we could do about it”, said the skipper.
Sammy defended his team’s clobbering style of play in not looking for singles but dealing in boundaries, something his openers Dwayne Smith and Chris Gayle as well as Middle order batsman Marlon Samuels are heavily criticized for.
“When you lose a cricket game, people tend to point out all different areas where that should have happened, this should have happened. But I am sure if you look at all the games we have played, there are more than 27 dots – probably 50-something dots,” Sammy pointed out, after which he went on to say “It’s not ideal for T20 but we’ve developed a formula in which that works for us.”
Asked if he had any final requests and who he would like to see cart the Trophy off, Sammy wished for high intensity cricket to be the outcome on April 6.
“To me right now, it doesn’t matter. I was looking forward to raising the trophy, come the 6th (Sunday). Now I am just gonna watch and hopefully it’s very entertaining, it’s not one-sided if fans get an exciting game of cricket, I will enjoy sitting at home watching. I will be gutted that I won’t be playing but yes, I will watch a good final.”
