Andre Coley wants West Indies batters to show consistency and intent

West Indies interim head coach Andre Coley has said that lack of intent in the batting department has let the side down in both T20Is against England in Derby.



"I think, in this format of the game, the intent is very important," Coley said during the post-match virtual media interaction after West Indies lost the second T20I by 47 runs on Wednesday (September 23).



Chasing 152, West Indies were on the back foot after losing an early wicket - Hayley Matthews falling cheaply to Katherine Brunt. Though Deandra Dottin and Stafanie Taylor added 61 runs for the second wicket, the rate at which they were scoring didn't help the cause. "During that period we actually dipped in terms of intent and moved away from that intensity around scoring boundaries," Coley said.



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"And that obviously led to us losing some momentum towards the end. We needed to keep going if we were to keep on pace with the required rate. So the dip in intensity and intent really slowed us down."



Unlike the first match, the West Indies bowlers were not able to pull England back in the death overs. The hosts made 52 runs in the last five overs, and that meant the match quickly slipped from the visitors' grasp.



Coley felt that the lack of consistency, clarity of plans, and intent eventually cost them the game. "We pushed them past the score that we were actually looking at. We figured we could have restricted them somewhere around mid-130s," he said



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With regards to the batting, Coley urged the batters to maintain an intent to score throughout the innings irrespective of the situation. "There were a couple of, or two-three instances when we were just hunting for singles when the required rate was more. It was just really starting with the intent and right through the innings maintaining that regardless of the situation," he added.



He added that the team showed great intensity in the field in the second game of the series and it was now time for the batters to stand up and do the same. "We have had a lot more intent in our fielding, and been pretty consistent throughout. If we can transfer that our batting, then we will be a lot more competitive," he concluded.