West Indies skipper Shai Hope admitted his side were 40–60 runs short after a nine-wicket defeat to South Africa in Ahmedabad. Despite a late recovery from 83/7, the Caribbean side now faces a must-win clash against India to keep semifinal hopes alive.

Ahmedabad, Feb 26: Despite losing wickets in a hurry, there was no attempt from West Indies batters to forge partnerships and instead they went for their shots in a nine-wicket loss to South Africa.

"With the evolution of T20 cricket these days, there's no right or wrong way to go about it. It's just how best we can execute on a given day in whichever situation we're faced with," West Indies skipper Shai Hope said in the post-match press conference.

Hope admits team fell short

Hope said they were 40 to 60 runs short on that good batting surface.

"It was a good surface that reminded me of pitches in South Africa. Their seamers got good shape and movement early. Maybe we didn't assess as well as we could have, and then obviously, with the wickets in the power play, they would always push us back.

West Indies, who were fresh from scoring 254 in Mumbai, got off to a rollicking start with 29 in two overs after South Africa won the toss and elected to bowl first. Kagiso Rabada, who hasn't been at his best in the tournament, breathed fire to dismiss Hope (16) and Shimron Hetmyer (2) in his first over.

Lungi Ngidi accounted for King (21) and Roston Chase (2) in his first over after getting hit for two consecutive boundaries. The Caribbean side was 43 for 4 in four overs.

Middle-order collapse hurts Windies

However, Sherfane Rutherford and Rovman Powell went for their shots and didn't seem in the mood to forge a partnership. The Caribbean side was reduced to 83 for seven at the halfway mark.

"Credit to them (Jason Holder and Romario Shepherd) for taking us from 83-7 to 176. It gives us some confidence to recover from such situations. But I think we were 40 to 50 or 60 runs short, the way the pitch was playing," he added.

West Indies now have to win their last game against India to harbour semifinal qualification hopes.

"I wouldn't say it's a difficult road. I think this is how it's supposed to be. Because when you come into crunch time of a tournament, every opposition or every game you play now is supposed to be a challenge in some way, and this is the reason why it's Super 8s, and then if you get to the semis and the finals, it's the reason why, because the better teams are in the latter half of the tournament. We see a situation that could face us in the next couple of days. So we've got to make sure we turn things around quickly and get a good result against India," he said.

Tactical calls questioned

West Indies hadn't learned from the previous game when they included off-spinner Washington Sundar instead of the performing left-arm spinner Axar Patel against South African left-handers without success. They left out left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein, who took three wickets in the last match, to bring in off-spinner Roston Chase, and it didn't pay off.

Also Watch:

"It was a tactical decision to bring in Chase for the destructive left-handers they got in the top order. It gave us a bit of variety and gave us the best chance. We just felt as though that would have been the best 11 for today. We still didn't execute as well."