Another win will put West Indies on the brink of a spot in the semi-finals of the ICC World T20. The Calypso Kings were simply phenomenal against Sri Lanka at Bangalore and now brace up to face South Africa in Nagpur. In the absence of Chris Gayle, Andre Fletcher did terrifically well as his knock sealed the game for West Indies.
In a media interaction, Gayle said that he was fit to take on South Africa and lavished praises on Fletcher. “In the second game against Sri Lanka I started, but didn’t get a chance to bat. But Fletcher came in, played his part and grabbed his opportunity with both hands,” Gayle said. “He played a fantastic knock and carried right through till the end. And that’s the sort of thing batters require – once you are set in these kinds of conditions, it is very important to bat as deep as possible and it just makes it easier for the team to chase or set a target, so it is very important to see Fletcher come on board and be Man of the Match.”
“Just continue to play smartly, pick and choose his bowlers to target at a particular time. Also whatever it is that works for him, like continue being aggressive in the first six. It’s very, very important to try and capitalise on that new ball as a batter. So just keep that aggression going and once you get past that first six, try and take it as deep as possible, look to pick up the odd boundary in the middle overs as well. Just build on whatever start you get,” advised Gayle.
“I’ve opened the batting with him on many occasions so I know what sort of a player he is, he is very dangerous and he’s capable of getting big scores as well. So hopefully he can build on this and carry on, not leave it for anybody and get more Man-of-the-Match awards,” said Gayle about the talented right-hander.