No excuses from Sarwan

Ramnaresh Sarwan

West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan insisted his side “have no-one to blame but ourselves” after their shock early exit from the ICC World Twenty20.

The Windies suffered a stunning six-wicket defeat against an impressive Bangladesh in Johannesburg on Thursday to crash out of the tournament on the back of their opening-day defeat to hosts South Africa.

And Sarwan, whose side will be bracing themselves for a national backlash after bowing out of the inaugural event without winning a match, admits they were just not good enough.

"We were very eager about it (the tournament) and excited about it but I don’t think we executed our plans very well, we didn’t bowl well and you saw how we fielded,” he said.

“It’s a matter of us going back and working hard. I know we’ve been saying this for a long time about our fielding and bowling and sometimes our batting.

“One of the things I’ve stressed since I became captain is consistency, and that is something we must focus on.

“It’s important that when we get back home we work on our game because we have a tour of South Africa coming up in a few months’ time.”

Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful was delighted his side had reached the Super 8s at the expense of their more favoured opponents and admitted winning the toss played a big part in their victory.

West Indies, put in to bat after the start was delayed for 90 minutes to allow the pitch to dry out after overnight watering, made just 164 for eight.

“We know we can always chase 160-plus,” Ashraful said.

“I think it was a very good toss to win because batting would not be easy on a drying wicket.

“I knew in my mind that 50% of the match had been won by winning the toss, but we still had to go out there and get the runs.

“The boys have trained hard over the past month. We even attended an army commando camp and I was confident we would do well in Twenty20.”