Following his first One-Day International century, West Indies middle-order batsman Nicholas Pooran said it was important for him to convert his start into a hundred against Sri Lanka on Monday (July 1).
Pooran wasn’t able to get his team over the line but the left-hander looked head and shoulders above the rest of the West Indies batsmen. He slammed 11 fours and four sixes in his 103-ball 118 and later also acknowledged all the comparisons with great Brian Lara. The 23-year-old said he has watched a lot of videos of Lara, but does not intend to fuel the hype.
“I know people say a lot of things about me but if I don’t perform on the field it makes no sense,” he said.
“I just want to get better and better each day. I have had a lot of starts in this tournament but couldn’t convert it into something big. I don’t know what the future holds – I’m just thankful that I got the opportunity to play and I could show the selectors that I could play.
“I don’t want to be like anyone else, I just want to be Nicholas Pooran.”
West Indies have only won one out of their eight games but Pooran wants his team to learn and improve from this experience.
“This hasn’t been a successful tournament for us but as sportsmen you fail more than you win and this has been a learning experience.
“We have a young team and a young batting line-up. Hopefully a lot of guys like me, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope and Fabian Allen have learned from this tournament.
“Hopefully when we play our next series against India we can start heading in the right direction and restore pride in West Indies cricket.”
Chasing 339, Pooran added 83 runs with Fabian Allen for the seventh wicket to give West Indies an unlikely shot at a record World Cup chase. Allen however was run out for which Pooran said he “felt a bit responsible”. West Indies eventually fell short by 23 runs.
“Myself and Fabian were in control. The bowlers didn’t know where to bowl and we were scoring easily.
