Veteran all-rounder Dwayne Bravo has praised the West Indies’ all-round efforts which saw them levelling the five-match T20I series heading into today’s final match.
South Africa batted second for the first time in the series in Thursday’s fourth T20I and fell 21 runs short of the hosts’ 167 to knot the series 2-2.
Bravo revealed that the team had been inspired by lengthy discussions prior which centered on West Indian pride and being the defending champions.
“We had a long meeting, a long discussion last night more to do about what it means to represent West Indies, what it means to be two-time world champions and to play the game with passion and pride and I think we really bounced back. The psychologist had a big session with us last night as well,” Bravo disclosed.
From a batting perspective, it was Kieron Pollard’s unbeaten 25-ball 51 that propelled the Caribbean side to what has been a par score for the series so far. Pollard’s efforts were supported by Lendl Simmons who made 47 from 34 balls.
“With the batting I think we kept losing wicket in clusters and struggled to get that big partnerships going but the captain led from the front today,” Bravo stated.
The fielding effort was equally as impressive from Bravo’s point of view.
“The attitude in the field was brilliant. We know how important it was to win this game and level the series and I think our ground fielding and catches were very good.”
The stand out department has been the bowling.
Bravo himself was outstanding with a career-best 4-19 to become the only West Indian with three four-wicket hauls in the format. He is ranked seventh among bowlers with the most four-wicket hauls.
Bravo, who shares the record for the longest T20I career that spans over 15 years with Chris Gayle, spoke of the consistent performance by Obed McCoy who has picked up eight wickets in the series so far.
“I think throughout the series not only today as a bowling group we’ve been restricting South Africa to pretty decent totals. This is the first time we defended a total in the series and I think we did a very good job of defending 160-odd and to restrict them to 140-odd I think credit must be given to the bowlers…especially Obed McCoy, showing his class, keep improving and learning, Fidel [Edwards] getting the opportunity for the first time bowled with some pace and aggression that was missing and Chris taking that first wicket in the second over so yes, all and all great team effort,” Bravo highlighted.
