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Our batting let us down - Moore

Imran Khan | 24/06/07

DERBYSHIRE, United Kingdom - West Indies head coach David Moore spoke with the media after the team's warm up 20/20 game against Derbyshire. Following are excerpts from his responses to various issues raised with him by journalists.

On the loss to Derbyshire:

It is very disappointing. We committed the cardinal sin to not bat our 20 overs out. We lost six wickets in four overs, played poor shots, it was very poor batting after I thought our bowlers did a very poor job.

On whether the West Indies team will suffer as a result of not being experienced in 20/20 cricket:

I think they haven't played enough of it, particularly at the international level as a team. This is only our second 20/20 as a West Indies team so we are coming to grips with it. Basic cricket knowledge and understanding applies and they should have applied that this afternoon.

On whether more warm up is needed before facing England:

We have another game against the PCA Masters XI (on Tuesday at Arundel) and we have an opportunity to remedy the situation which we have put ourselves in this afternoon (against Derbyshire).

On whether the players need to learn new skills for 20/20 cricket:

I don't think it is necessarily about learning new skills. It's about applying your knowledge. There were many opportunities for singles. There were too many attempted big hits rather than nudging the ball for singles and then cash in on the bad balls. We tried to make too many things out of reasonable balls and played too many poor shots.

On the need for consistency:

We played pretty well against the England Lions (formerly England A) the other day and beat them quite soundly in a 24 over a side game (reduced from 50 overs due to rain). We batted very well for that. Our consistency is the thing. I've been talking about consistency for this whole tour and it is that that let us down.

On whether there will need to be learning on the job while playing England:

It will be a steep learning curve but it is not irreparable and we know what we've got to do and it is rather straight forward - there weren't enough scoring shots per over in the whole innings. I think it is all about that. It is to be more applied. It is a game of cricket, it is a 20 over game of cricket and you've got to apply your skills for those 20 overs.

On Chris Gayle's captaincy:

I thought he led in the field pretty well. We bowled very well, his field placings were pretty good. I don't think Chris had a bad game with his field placings and with his use of the bowlers. He did a very good job. It wasn't Chris' leadership that let us down today. It was a lack of application in our batting. There were some poor shots played today. You can understand when guys get bowled or lbw early in their innings but once they get set and they are not scoring run a ball that's when the concern arises.