Simmons slams ‘unprofessional’ batting after Scotland shocker

PHIL SIMMONS, coach of the West Indies cricket team, slammed the “unprofessional” batting display of his squad on Monday, after they suffered a 42-run defeat to Scotland in the teams’ ICC T20 World Cup First Round Group B contest, at Bellerive Oval, Hobart, Australia.

Scotland, who were sent in to bat first, posted a score of 160 runs for five wickets, with opener and Man of the Match George Munsey leading the way with an unbeaten 66.

The West Indies slid from 53/1 in the sixth over to 118 all out, with nine balls remaining. Jason Holder topscored for the 2012 and 2016 T20 World Cup champions with 38.

Left-arm spinner and opening bowler Mark Watt claimed three wickets for 12 runs and off-spinner Michael Leask took 2/15.

This was the first-ever T20 International meeting between the teams, but this loss means the West Indies will have to defeat Zimbabwe on Wednesday and Ireland on Friday to be assured of a spot in the Super 12 stage.

Much has been made of the West Indies team being in transition, after seasoned campaigners Kieron Pollard, Lendl Simmons, Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo either retired or were left out by the selection panel after the T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

But captain Nicholas Pooran, vice-captain Rovman Powell, Holder, Odean Smith, Kyle Mayers, Alzarri Joseph, Evin Lewis, Obed McCoy and Sheldon Cottrell are either regulars in the Indian Premier League (IPL) or have had IPL experience.

On the other side of the coin, no member of the Scottish starting XI has ever earned an IPL deal.

At the post-game media conference, Simmons, who was the WI coach at the 2016 T20 World Cup, spoke about his team’s batting collapse against the steady, but hardly menacing, Scottish bowling attack.

“The only word you can look for is disappointing,” said Simmons, who previously coached Zimbabwe and Ireland at the international level. “I think that our batting, at least (on Monday), was a bit unprofessional, and we need to wake up and start being as professional as we can be when we’re batting.

“The bowlers seem to be working hard and putting us in good positions, but the batters continue to falter.”

On what went wrong against Scotland, Simmons said, “I don’t know. We haven’t started the inquest in the dressing room yet. I’ll let them calm down a little bit first, or I'll let myself calm down a little bit first, before I go into the dressing room. But I think it’s just too many soft dismissals.

“I think, as batsmen, you have to pay a lot more attention to your wicket. Every time we play, I think we’re up there with the run-rate. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing against, but we keep losing wickets. We're trying to remedy it for the last couple months. It doesn’t seem like it’s (remedied as) yet.”

Lewis, who was not included in the WI team for the home series against Bangladesh, India and New Zealand, after failing to take a fitness test, was inserted at the top of the order, splitting a seemingly settled opening combination of Mayers and Brandon King.

Pooran, who has been enduring woeful form, both for the West Indies and Trinbago Knight Riders in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), remained at four, but Shamarh Brooks, who was a regular at number three in the WI line-up (as well as Jamaica Tallawahs in the CPL), batted at number five.

On the tinkering with the batting order, Simmons said, “People need to go up (the order) to make a difference. Today there was no real ‘different position.’ I think guys are batting where they are strong.”

The WI will face a Zimbabwe team who comfortably dispatched Ireland by 31 runs on Monday.

“(Tuesday will be) to rest and reflect on how things went, what we have to change and how we have to think in the next game,” said Simmons.

There is a likelihood of rain this week, which may affect this week’s matches. Will he be also thinking about the net run-rate?

Simmons responded, “We need to beat Zimbabwe. That’s the first step.”