Unpredictable West Indies warm up in UAE ahead of World Twenty20

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Unpredictable West Indies warm up in UAE ahead of World Twenty20
West Indies team with T20 World Cup at the Ring of Fire in Dubai.

Dubai - West Indies completed their unofficial warm-ups with a three-wicket win over Warwickshire on Sunday at the same venue.

By KT Report

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Published: Tue 8 Mar 2016, 6:51 PM

West Indies Twenty20 captain Darren Sammy believes that their squad for the World Cup, which starts in India on Tuesday, was such a strong one that finding a final XI could prove a headache.
"We have the core of our team. Obviously we have some new players coming into our World Cup team like Carlos (Brathwaite), Jason Holder, Sulieman Benn, Ashley Nurse . they are coming back into the team," he said in a post on social media after the Caribbeans played four warm-up games in the UAE.
"We need to come up with a combination that we think will help us win the World Cup," the experienced all-rounder said.
"To be fair, it will be tough to select that 11-man squad. Carlos has played really well, Jason (has played well), Benn becomes a very important fact with Narine pulling out of the World Cup so it's just about fine-tuning ourselves, both technically and tactically."
"The West Indian team played two warm up games last week against the Zimbabweans at the Sharjah Stadium," confirmed Mazhar Khan, the Emirates Cricket Board Administrator, who also manages the historic cricket venue.
He revealed that the World Cup-bound teams wanted to keep their unofficial warm up games behind closed doors, it was kept that way thus media was not informed.
However, the West Indies Cricket Board has shared the details on their Facebook page and some photographs on Instagram.
All rounder Dwayne Bravo was the star in the first warm up game that the West Indies won by 18 runs against Zimbabwe at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
In the second match, an aggressive batting by their openers saw West Indies canter to an easy win over Zimbabwe. They first restricted Zimbabweans to 153 for 7. Sibanda top scored with a stroke-filled 64, while Raza made 23 for Zimbabwe. Carlos Brathwaite (3-23) was the best West Indian bowler, while Dwayne Bravo (2-11) and Jerome Taylor (2-35) also bowled well.
Johnson Charles 92 not out and Andre Fletcher 56 not out took Windies past Zimbabwe by 10 wickets to take the two-match series 2-0 at Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
The Windies then beat Warwickshire by 13 runs in their first warm up game against the English County side at the ICC Academy Cricket grounds in Dubai. West Indies completed their unofficial warm-ups with a three-wicket win over Warwickshire on Sunday at the same venue.
The team left for Kolkatta on Monday in their bid to regain the T20 World Cup they last won in 2012 in Sri Lanka.
sports@khaleejtimes.com


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