Our aim is to win every game, says Hosein

Source: Trinidad Guardian

GEORGE­TOWN - Akeal Ho­sein says West In­dies are tak­ing no team for grant­ed in the on­go­ing Twen­ty20 World Cup, fol­low­ing their com­pre­hen­sive win over min­nows Ugan­da in Guyana late Sat­ur­day.

The Caribbean side steam­rolled the African na­tion by 134 runs af­ter rack­ing up 173 for five at the Guyana Na­tion­al Sta­di­um and then bundling out their op­po­nents for a pal­try 39.

And with West In­dies turn­ing their at­ten­tion to New Zealand in their next match on Wednes­day in Trinidad and To­ba­go, Ho­sein said it was im­por­tant for the team to main­tain their in­ten­si­ty.

"I think we are not tak­ing any­one light­ly. Our aim is two points no mat­ter who we come up against," said the left-arm spin­ner, whose ca­reer-best five-wick­et haul on Sat­ur­day spear­head­ed West In­dies' dom­i­nant win.

"Yes, we will go back and plan. We know there may be a stronger unit than this op­po­si­tion but go­ing for­ward, every op­po­si­tion we come up against, the aim is to get two points. And we're not tak­ing any­one for grant­ed."

West In­dies have now won both their match­es, fol­low­ing their open­ing vic­to­ry against Papua New Guinea last week, and are sec­ond in Group C be­hind Afghanistan but on­ly on net run rate.

New Zealand, mean­while, were stunned by Afghanistan in their open­ing game and lie bot­tom of the group, the West In­dies con­test at Bri­an Lara Sta­di­um now a crit­i­cal fix­ture for them.

Ho­sein said the home side were con­fi­dent and were un­der no pres­sure head­ing in­to the game.

"I think go­ing in­to the third game, we def­i­nite­ly are a force to reck­on with," he said.

"We have been play­ing good crick­et over the last 12 years and we have im­proved im­mense­ly in ar­eas that we weren't the best at so I think [there is] no pres­sure.

"We know once we stick to­geth­er and we do every­thing to­geth­er at the end of the day, we'll def­i­nite­ly be on the pos­i­tive side com­ing out on the win­ning side.

"And to have guys like An­dre Rus­sell and head coach Dar­ren Sam­my, these guys who've been there done that, it's an ex­tra boost for us.

"It's a con­fi­dence boost­er and you can nev­er beat ex­pe­ri­ence go­ing in­to these sort of tour­na­ments - guys who've been there done that you're al­ways a step ahead of op­po­si­tions who may not have this sort of peo­ple in their camp, so it's a boost for us."

Two-time for­mer cham­pi­ons West In­dies will wrap up their group stage cam­paign against Afghanistan in St Lu­cia on June 17.