India ‘A’ opener Baba Aparajith on Thursday said losing his wicket before the batting powerplay led to the hosts’ 45-run defeat in the third unoffical ODI against the West Indies ‘A’ in Bangalore.
Victory for the visitors resulted in a 2-1 series win over the formidable India A side.
Aparajith, who scored a half century in his first game of the series, said his dismissal came at a wrong time.
“Powerplay was important but before that I got out...that did not help,” he said at the post-match press conference at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Aparajith said he didn’t put pressure on himself and followed his process to tide over an usual nervousness in the beginning.
“I just tried to enjoy,” he added.
He also said it was easier to bat along side skipper Yuvraj Singh.
Describing his style of batting, Aparajith said he likes to play long innings.
Meanwhile, West Indies A captain Kieran Powell lauded the efforts of Kirk Edwards who smashed a match-winning century, that paved the way for his side’s 2-1 series clinching victory in the unofficial ODI series.
“He (Edwards) knew if he bats deep into the innings, he will get an hundred and that’s what the team needed, and he did it and other guys batted around him, which helped us clinch the series in the decider,” Powell said.
Powell said the visitors executed their plans brilliantly in last two games after losing the series opener.
Asked about the positives to derive from the series, Powell said: “Lot of youngsters are there in the team and the series win augurs well for West Indies cricket.”
On his personal form after two bad performances in the series, Powell said the ploy to play positively worked wonders for him and he hoped to continue in the same vein in the one-off Twenty20 match to be played on Saturday.
