I can’t take Gayle's spot: Fletcher

March 21, 2016 11:02 pm | Updated March 22, 2016 01:34 am IST - BENGALURU:

This is an era of short attention spans. In the cricketing world nobody embodies this as much as the West Indians. In the longer formats they seem as bored as the fans. But in the shortest of formats they are a sprightly bunch capable of beating anybody.

The last two years in fact lends credence to this. In the last four World T20 editions they have won the trophy once and finished semifinalists twice while pretty much falling flat outside of it. Going by the side’s form this time around — two wins out of two including one with zero effort from Chris Gayle — a finish high up looks likely again.

“We always back ourselves to win the World Cup,” said Andre Fletcher, the player-of-the-match in West Indies’ seven-wicket win over Sri Lanka.

“It’s good to see that we have two wins under our belt and once we get into the semifinals, we take it from there. Once we play the cricket we are accustomed to, we will lift the cup a second time.”

Fletcher in fact didn’t play the first match against England and was pushed up to the opening slot only after an injury to Chris Gayle.

“I didn’t take his spot,” he stressed. “I can’t take his spot. I don’t think anyone in the world can take his spot, so I am happy that I did the job for the team and I am grateful for that position.”

“I cannot say that,” Fletcher said when asked if the opener’s slot was now his. “I cannot say that I would be opening or even playing the next game, so fingers crossed.”

Too many holes

For Angelo Mathews however, it seems tough to even assess the number of holes to be plugged. “I thought the middle order let us down today,” he said.

“We batted quite well in the last game, we were being positive, but today wasn’t the ideal wicket for batting. We just kept losing wickets.”

“We are doing mistakes here and there which actually cost us the game. We were so sloppy on the field again. We have a very good break going into the next games. We’ll work hard on all the departments and try and win.

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