Chennai, Mar 20: As his side suffered yet another batting collapse and bit the dust, West Indies Captain Darren Sammy today hoped that his side would not repeat the mistake in the knockout stage of the World Cup.
West Indies were in a good position to beat India today in group B contest but from being 154 for two, they were all out for 188, chasing 269 to win.
"Good thing is that it is not a knock out stage. If that happened we could be leaving for home. Once we put our heads down we play each ball on its merit. We will come up with good shot. We created another winning opportunity by being 152 for 2 but let it slip away," Sammy said at the post match press conference.
However, Sammy also took some positives out of today's contest as paceman Ravi Ramapul took a five-wicket haul.
"It is one of the positives that we should take definitely. He came from the bench and grabbed the opportunity given to him," he said.
Sammy said he was not surprised when off spinner Ashwin opened the attack for India.
"It is no surprise. Many teams have done it in the world cup. What happened after the 30th over was important and all of us were watching we lost eight wickets," he said.
"He did what his captain wanted him to do. Bowled well and got his opportunities. He got an early wicket, he bowled well. He opened the bowling that shows the confidence the captain has in him."
Talking about Yuvraj Singh, who scored 113 and also took two wickets for India, Sammy said, "He played well. We had plans to take his wicket. We had a chance to get Yuvraj out but I was culprit to have dropped him twice."
Sammy also appreciated Sachin Tendulkar's honesty as he chose to walk back to pavillion despite being declared not out out by the umpire during today's match.
"That was brilliant on the part of Sachin. It shows the measure of the man. He is a gentleman. After 17,000 runs, you could walk."
On the possibility of West Indies-India semi final, he said, "We will have good time to beat them. We have to beat Pakistan and then it will be sweet revenge to beat India at home." PTI
