Windies must buckle down or face early exit, warns Sammy

Nelson (New Zealand), Feb 17 (IANS) Former one-day captain Darren Sammy has warned his teammates that their campaign in the ICC World Cup will be short lived unless they begin to execute properly in all three aspects of the game.

The West Indies crashed to an embarrassing four-wicket loss to Ireland in their World Cup opener at Saxton Oval here Monday, despite piling up 304 for seven, reports CMC.

"If we continue to play like that, we won’t be here for long for sure," Sammy said.

The West Indies recovered from 87 for five in the 24th over to top 300, thanks to Lendl Simmons who stroked 102 and Sammy, who slammed an exhilarating 89. They put on 154 runs for the sixth wicket.

However, the Windies seam-based attack then bowled poorly and Ireland got stuck in, with opener Paul Stirling (92), Ed Joyce (84) and Niall O’Brien (79 not out) all striking high class half-centuries to see their side home with 25 balls remaining.

"I always believe cricket is played on the day. Like we saw, 300 was not enough against Ireland. We have to put all three disciplines of the game together on the cricket pitch in order to win matches," Sammy warned.

"So when we bat well, we’ve got to bowl well and field well and right now we’re only doing one of those three disciplines and if we don’t correct that soon, we will be on a flight back to the Caribbean and won’t be in the quarter-finals."

The West Indies square off against Pakistan in Christchurch Saturday.