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Most guys didn’t sleep whole night: Nicholas Pooran proud of West Indies fight in last T20I

Abhishek Singh

West Indian stand-in skipper Nicholas Pooran who had got the duty to captain the team on Pakistan tour after regular skipper Kieron Pollard pulled out, said that he was proud of his team’s fight in the last T20I of the three-match series against the hosts. 

This statement came after the West Indies team’s five members tested Covid-19 positive just ahead of the game and they had to scamper to assemble an 11 man team to play the last game.

“Most of the guys haven't slept the whole night and I'm very proud of the unit. I want to commend all the guys for making that extra effort to come out to play today,” Pooran said in the post-match interview after his team lost the game by seven wickets. 

Talking about the events before the game where the squad’s total strength came down significantly after the cases with three players in Roston Chase, Kyle Mayers and Sheldon Cottrell having tested positive for Covid-19 earlier on December 11. 

“We spent the whole day wondering whether we should play this game or not. A lot of positives and a lot of guys took their opportunities,” said Pooran who played an instrumental role in his team scoring 207 in their 20 overs. The skipper scored 64 off 37 deliveries.

However, with brilliant knocks from Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, both of whom completed big fifties, Pakistan managed to chase down the target with seven balls remaining. but, Pooran was extremely delighted with the performance even as he felt that while batting his men could have scored a lot more runs than they already did. 

“ [These are] A special bunch of guys and we have competed throughout and well done to the guys. [I] Felt like the last two overs, we lost the momentum. Pakistan bowled well. We were 15 runs short on this wicket,” said the 26-year-old. 

Due to the Covid-19 scenario, the three-match ODI series between the two teams has now been postponed to June 2022.

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