Reifer: Windies peaking at the ‘right time’

KOLKATA, India:

Having arrived at the T20 World Cup on the back of successive T20I series losses, West Indies batting coach Floyd Reifer said he is pleased to see the team peaking at the right time.

The Windies suffered 2-1 defeats to both Afghanistan and South Africa as part of their preparations for the World Cup, with the regional team winning the third match of both contests after falling behind 2-0.

However, the Group C leaders turned their fortunes around immediately by defeating Scotland, England and Nepal by comfortable margins to book their spot in the Super Eight phase.

They still have one final preliminary match to play, against Italy on Thursday, where they are the overwhelming favourites.

Speaking in a pre-match press conference on Wednesday, Reifer said all of the players were gelling at the right time.

"In tournaments like these it's important to peak at the right time. Yes, it's important to win games, but for us it's about getting everybody comfortable in their positions, performing their roles, executing their roles and being good at the roles that they're asked to do.

"Yes we have quality players like [Shimron] Hetmyer, [Sherfane] Rutherford, Jason Holder, Romario Shepherd, Rovman Powell, Shai Hope and Brandon King at the top, so it's just a matter of guys sticking together, putting in the work at training sessions. Preparation is key going into any tournament and we've been preparing very well, so it's just a matter of us continuing to play good cricket," Reifer said.

"...These guys are quality cricketers. I can see a lot of maturity now within a lot of the guys in terms of how they play, their mindset and how they go about things. So yeah, I think everybody is in a good space and we're ready."

SUPER EIGHTS

While Reifer was pleased the West Indies had already qualified for the Super Eights, he maintained their focus was on Italy.

He promised that when the next phase of the tournament begins, the Windies will be ready.

"To be honest every game in the World Cup is a big game. I see Australia just exited the World Cup, so we take every game seriously.

"When we go to the Super Eights we will take one game at a time. You know our first game is against Zimbabwe, so we'll focus on that game, do all the planning that is necessary to come out on top of that game. We will take one game at a time and when we get to India we will plan for India," Reifer said.

"We have one game tomorrow against Italy, and our focus is to make sure we're ticking all the boxes in each department: batting, bowling and fielding. When we get to the Super Eights, we'll plan accordingly for each team that we're playing against."

- CMC