West Indies assistant coach Roddy Estwick acknowledged that his side’s inability to latch on to ‘big moments’ and close out games in the World Cup has resulted in them missing out on a semi-final spot.

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West Indies began their World Cup brightly, with a seven-wicket win over Pakistan, whom they rolled over for 105. But that remains their only win of the competition heading into their ninth and final game. In the interim, they have competed well, and even come close to defeating some of the top sides in the tournament, such as New Zealand and Australia, but have come up short, largely due to their inability to sustain their brilliance.

“Looking back over the eight games that we played, I personally thought that we should have won four of those,” Estwick said ahead of the match against Afghanistan on Thursday, July 4. “We were very, very close. We just didn’t play the big moments well. And, hopefully, we can learn from that and move forward and plan for the next one.

“The boys on the bus were still playing dominos, the spirit in the dressing room was tremendous. And that can only serve us well going forward.”

“Spinners are doing their job, but sometimes they didn’t give you a hundred per cent in the match,” he said. “So it depends on the wickets. Example is Rashid Khan, he is one of the best spinners in the world recently. But the wickets sometimes he didn’t expect the ball turning or not turning.

“Hopefully, in the future, we can find a good fast bowler. And I’m hoping so I’ll be working on it.”