da betcris： Tough, real tough
Barry Alleyne24-Dec-2001Tough, real tough.That was how Barbadians Pedro Collins and Ryan Hindsdescribed their experiences on the just-concluded WestIndies tour of Sri Lanka.The Windies were soundly thrashed in all three Tests andbeaten by the hosts in the final of the One-Day triangularseries which also included Zimbabwe.The wickets were really slow, and that forced me to workreally hard in every spell, Collins said Saturday night whenthe trio of himself, Hinds and Corey Collymore returnedhome. Collins did the entire trip, while Collymore and Hindswent up for the One-Day segment.In the One-Dayers, Collins had six wickets at 22.33 apieceat 3.60 per over. In his two Tests he took seven wickets at43 apiece with a best haul of four for 78.In Collymore’s first bowl he was Man Of The Match with fivefor 51 against Sri Lanka. Overall he had nine wickets infive matches.It was really tough, Collins added. When the wickets arethat slow you have to concentrate even more on line andlength, and the Sri Lankan batsmen are always veryaggressive.The lanky left-arm pacer noted he was still able to bowlwell, because of his fitness, and he also worked on swingingthe ball back into right-handers.I always did well in my second spell and was able to pick upa few wickets.There’s no doubt I picked up quite a few things, even thoughwe lost the series. I also have to work on keeping focused.The 25-year-old Boscobel, St Peter, resident said he had towork for every single wicket.The Sri Lankans don’t simply give their wickets away. Youhave to work to get it, and they are very aggressive at thecrease.Concerning the team’s next assignment against Pakistan,Collins said he expected the hosts to be very toughopposition.Hinds, on his first trip with the senior team overseas, butfamiliar with Sri Lanka having previously played there ascaptain of the West Indies Under-19 team in the Youth WorldCup, echoed Collins’ sentiments.I was a bit nervous at first, even though I had played therebefore, said the soft-spoken 20-year-old.My first chance to play, we were in a very vital game, butthe nerves eventually went away, and I was okay.He had two not out innings of 15 and 16 and sent down fiveovers of left-arm spin for 27 runs.I felt comfortable after a few days, but then I developed aslight shoulder injury.Hinds added he wasn’t disappointed at having to bat at No.8in the final, after going in at No.4 in his debut game.I was able to learn a lot in a short time from the olderguys like Lara and Hooper, he said.