PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa, (Reuters) - West Indies captain Carl Hooper has said he is desperate to find a bowler to stem the flow of runs his team are conceding late in their opponents' innings.
West Indies suffered their first World Cup defeat yesterday, going down by 20 runs to New Zealand who smashed 37 runs off their final three overs, including 16 off the last bowled by spinner Chris Gayle.
``We're struggling to find somebody to partner Vasbert Drakes in bowling at the end,'' Hooper told a news conference.
``We tried Mervyn Dillon during the ICC Trophy and he wasn't too happy bowling at the end and we've tried Nixon McLean,'' he added.
``It's an area we've got to look at because we've noticed in the last five or six overs teams are scoring pretty freely against us. You expect the occasional boundary or six to be hit late in the game but to give away 40 or 60 runs is just too much.''
Despite his concerns, Hooper thinks his team should still have won the match after restricting the Kiwis to 241 after winning the toss.
``We bowled well enough, to get 240-odd on a small ground and on a good pitch, we should have got that, but we just didn't bat well enough,'' Hooper said. ``I thought 240 was a commendable effort by the bowlers but we just didn't bat well.''
West Indies pulled off a major surprise when they beat hosts South Africa by three runs on Sunday, but came back down to earth against the Kiwis. ``I don't think it was a case of complacency,'' Hooper said.
``New Zealand are one of the better teams out there and it was very important for us to win well. I reckon we should have got 240. One of the biggest worries is that we dropped a catch.''