West Indies going all out to make it five Test wins in a row
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| Captain Darren Sammy |
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – West Indies will look to call the shots and continue their dominance over Zimbabwe when the two teams meet in the opening contest of the two-match Test Series on Tuesday at the historic Kensington Oval. First ball is 10 am (9 am Jamaica Time).
A victory over the visitors would make it five Test wins in a row for West Indies following last year’s triumphs over New Zealand in the Caribbean and overseas over Bangladesh.
West Indies beat New Zealand by nine wickets at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground in Antigua last July and a week later won by five wickets at Sabina Park in Jamaica. Last November, they beat Bangladesh by 77 runs in Dhaka and then had an easy 10-wicket victory in Khulna.
Captain Darren Sammy is confident his team can maintain their stranglehold over the visitors. He warned against complacency and noted that the task of winning won’t be a easy. West Indies have won everything during the series so far. They completed a 3-0 clean sweep in the three One-Day Internationals at the Grenada National Stadium and then the World Champion side powered to a 2-0 results in the T20s at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground.
“We’re ready…our preparations have been spot on and we believe we will get the upperhand over Zimbabwe. We have been very professional and disciplined in all we have done so far. We will look to continue the winning ways we had in the One-Day and T20 series,” Sammy said.
“The guys are coming in from playing four-day cricket so everyone should be settled and ready to take on the Zimbabweans. Kemar (Roach) and Marlon (Samuels) did not play in the last round of the Regional 4Day tournament but they played for the Sagicor High Performance Centre over the weekend so they got in their preparation as well.”
Sammy was speaking on Monday morning shortly before he and Zimbabwe skipper Brendan Taylor unveiled the Clive Lloyd trophy and the International Home Series 2013 trophy on the outfield in front the 3Ws Stand.
“The goal of the team is to win and make it five in a row. We won’t take Zimbabwe for granted but we know once go out and play the way we did in the last four Test matches we will be successful, but we won’t beat them by saying it. We have to go out and do it on the cricket field,” Sammy said.
“We have five days of cricket to win a Test match and we will look to do that. We have to go out and put in the good work. Whatever (pitch) we get we have to go out and do a thorough and professional job. We don’t really see fast and bouncy pitches in the Caribbean these days and we are used to working with what we have. The key is to be focussed and disciplined…go out and put in the performances to beat the Zimbabweans.”
WEST INDIES SQUAD
Darren Sammy (Captain)
Denesh Ramdin (Vice Captain)
Tino Best
Darren Bravo
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
Narsingh Deonarine
Shannon Gabriel
Chris Gayle
Veerasammy Permaul
Kieran Powell
Kemar Roach
Marlon Samuels
Shane Shillingford
TEAM MANAGEMENT
Ottis Gibson (Head Coach)
Richie Richardson (Team Manager)
Toby Radford (Assistant Coach)
C.J. Clark (Physiotherapist)
Hector Martinez Charles (Strength & Conditioning Coach)
Richard Berridge (Video & Statistical Analyst)
Philip Spooner (Media Manager)
Fitz Alleyne (Massage Therapist)
SCHEDULE OF MATCHES
Fri, Feb 22: 1st One-Day International – West Indies won by 156 runs – National Cricket Stadium, Grenada
Sun, Feb 24: 2nd One-Day International – West Indies won by 7 wickets – National Cricket Stadium
Tue, Feb 26: 3rd One-Day International – West Indies won by 5 wickets – National Cricket Stadium
Sat, Mar 2: 1st T20 International – West Indies won by 8 wickets – Vivian Richards Cricket Ground, Antigua
Sun, Mar 3: 2nd T20 International – West Indies won by 41 runs – Vivian Richards Cricket Ground
Thu, Mar 7 to Sat, Mar 9: Zimbabwe vs Sagicor HPC – Match Drawn – Desmond Haynes Oval, Barbados
Tue, Mar 12 to Sat, Mar 16: 1st Test – Kensington Oval, Barbados
Wed, Mar 20 to Sun, Mar 24: 2nd Test – Windsor Park, Dominica