|
Basseterre (St Kitts), July 18 (IANS/CMC) Mystery off-spinner Sunil Narine has praised the input of head coach Ottis Gibson following his five-wicket haul which fired West Indies to a 20-run victory in the final One-Day International (ODI) against New Zealand and with it the series 4-1. In another impressive outing, Narine picked up five for 27 Monday from his 10 overs, the all-time best figures by a West Indian against New Zealand and the best ever at Warner Park, reports CMC. The performance was enough to adjudge Narine the Man-of-the-Match and Man-of-the-Series. "I spoke to the coach and we looked at a few new ideas about how to attack the batsmen," the 24-year-old revealed. "He suggested that I could look at some more variety and I went into the nets and worked hard at how I could come from around the wicket and look to get the ball to 'pitch on'. "As you saw, it worked wonders as I got wickets from around the wicket... That's something I will definitely work on in the coming weeks." Narine, who has played just 15 ODIs since making his debut last year, ended the series with 13 wickets at a brilliant average of 11.23 per wicket and an economy rate of a mere 2.92 runs per over. It was his spell - two for 20 from 10 overs - in the fourth ODI Saturday that turned the screws on New Zealand and allowed West Indies to come away with a 24-run victory and take an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series. "This is my first ODI series win for the West Indies and I'm happy it came at home in front the home supporters... It felt really good that they could celebrate with us," said Narine. "I always set out to look for wickets and today I got five so that's very pleasing for me. It sort of put the icing on the cake. We went into the match leading the series 3-1 and we didn't want to give anything away. As I said before, 4-1 looks much better that 3-2 and today we proved that." Narine will now turn his attention to the upcoming Test series beginning in Antigua in just over a week, where West Indies will be looking to sustain their great form. And the Trinidadian, who made his Test debut on the tour of England last month, said he was looking forward to enjoying his cricket. "I love playing cricket. I want to come out every day and look to get better than I was the day before," Narine said. --IANS/CMC vs/vr/rd
| 
