Armed with two impressive left-arm spinners, two of the best T20 batsmen, and arguably one of the best T20 all-rounders in history, the West Indies, ranked fourth in the world, came up short in their performance in the T20 World Cup being held in the region and the United States.

Coming into the tournament as a force to be reckoned with, and hot off a 3-0 win against South Africa (RSA) under the coaching guidance of Darren Sammy, the West Indies seemed well-positioned to capture their third T20 World Cup trophy.

Darren Sammy was the team captain when the West Indies broke their eight-year trophyless spell in 2012 2012 and repeated the feat in 2016.

So let’s start with the batsmen.

Up until his last game Nicholas Pooran was the man to watch in the batting line-up. Breaking Chris Gayle’s record for most sixes in the T20I format, being one of the highest scorers in the tournament, snd known to be among the best in the world at facing spin bowlers, his firepower is always one of the major deciding factors in the West Indies’ run tally.

However, the overall poor performance from the opening batsmen throughout the tournament, the growing dependence on Pooran to carry the team and his increased penchant for being too aggressive early left a chink in the armour that both England and South Africa were able to exploit.

Even WI Captain Rovman Powell, a good captain, needed to do more with the bat during this World Cup. Getting stumped at that point in the game is nothing short of unacceptable.

The Windies also continued their habit of too many dot balls throughout their batting innings. In their last match against RSA on Sunday, June 23, the Windies had 50 dot balls, the equivalent of amost 9 overs of gameplay doing nothing.

West Indies’ bowling attack focused on the spinning prowess of both Gudakesh Motie and Akeal Hosein, supplemented with the fast bowling from Alzarri Joseph, and further assistance from all-rounders Andre Russell and Roston Chase.

Hosein and Motie looked remarkable throughout the tournament and Chase’s added effectiveness was a needed boost to the bowling attack. Joseph and Russell gradually became more potent as the tournament progressed, but the bowling always felt like it was missing one more player who could support the team in the middle of the innings and close out the game against the lower-order batsmen in the death overs when needed.

The Windies’ lack of a bowler who could truly handle the death overs and pick up the slack when they could not close out the game quickly came back to bite the team.

Romario Shepherd should have been the player to remove that weakness. The bowling all-rounder should have been able to pair well with Joseph to give the team greater options with the seam, but his low ineffectiveness throughout the tournament and his horrid performance against England got him benched and replaced by Obed McCoy for the RSA game.

Outside of the heroic bowling from Chase, Hosein’s ineffectiveness against the left-handed batsmen and lack of potency in the back end of the innings, as well as Motie’s uncharacteristic 20-run conceded over seemed to dry up the team’s confidence in bringing back Motie over McCoy for the final over of the match.

Overall, there is something special about this rendition of the West Indies lineup but the men in maroon needed to show more than just pockets of excellence; they needed to find the pockets better as well.

Still, win or lose, now and forever, we rally ’round the West Indies.