World T20: Have to stop losing early wickets, says Broad

Pallekele (Sri Lanka): England captain Stuart Broad said losing two wickets early while chasing a competitive 180-run target hurt the defending champions badly in their Super Eights game against West Indies here. Chasing a challenging 179 for five set by West Indies, England lost Craig Kieswetter and Luke Wright in the first over without a run on the board, and Broad feels his batsmen did a fantastic job by making a comeback into the match from such a precarious position. “We had to regroup, obviously losing two wickets in that first over hurt us but we showed how good the wicket was,” he said at the post-match press conference. “We were quite happy with our effort with the ball and I think we’re disappointed not to win tonight,” Broad said. [caption id=“attachment_471653” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  West Indies team after the win. Reuters[/caption] Broad was full of praise for Eoin Morgan, who scored a blistering 71 off just 36 balls and together with Alex Hales (68) added 107 runs for the fourth wicket to bring England closer. “Eoin has been fantastic in this form of the game and he showed it again,” he said. “The surface played pretty well, I think it was a batter’s paradise. The bowlers kept them to a below par score so we’re disappointed not to have chased that. We’ve got to stop losing early wickets because it’s hurting us.” West Indies captain, Darren Sammy too was all praise for his openers Chris Gayle (58) and Johnson Charles (84), who added 103 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform the for the West Indies’ total. “We backed ourselves to set a target and Chris (Gayle) and Charles got us going well. It’s good to see the way Johnson Charles played, he stared off slow but he constructed an important innings,” Sammy said. “With (Sunil) Narine, (Marlon) Samuel, Chris (Gayle), we decided to maximise our spinners against England and it worked out.” Man-of-the-match Johnson Charles was also happy with his effort. “It feels very good, coming up here we want to win the tournament. It feels very good because it’s my first one,” Charles said. “If you bowl straight on a back of a length it is hard to score - Steve Finn is a tall man, hard to hit. It’s just a matter of staying in the crease and scoring the runs.” PTI