Gibson wants batsmen to show 'common sense'

A day after Ottis Gibson said he would like a batting coach to be part of his staff, West Indies proved they need the guidance of one by crashing to 157 all out in 38 overs in Dominica, surrendering the series 3-0 to South Africa with two ODIs to play. Gibson said the dismal performance was because the batsmen were neither taking responsibility nor playing with common sense.

"It boils down to the batsmen taking responsibility, which they are not doing, and it is also going to take a large amount of common sense, which they are not displaying," Gibson said. "As a coach, you can talk as much as you like, and the guys are working hard at their skills, but cricket also requires some thought and a lot of commonsense and that's where, as a batting group, we are falling down."

The West Indies bowlers had done their bit to help fight back in the series by restricting South Africa to 224 in the third one-dayer. However, the batting collapsed and the hosts lost eight wickets for 89 to slump to 118 for 8. Similar batting failures have led to West Indies losing all five chases against South Africa - two in the Twenty20 internationals and three in the ODIs.

"I keep saying that, in order to win, we have to create the opportunity first. We created the opportunity, we bowled out (South Africa) for 224, we can't ask for more than that in a game you have to win," Gibson said. "All it required was some common sense batting and we're not displaying any common sense when we walk out."

Gibson also defended Shivnarine Chanderpaul's performance in the third one-dayer. Chanderpaul, playing his first match of the series after recovering from a hand injury, took 49 balls to score 24 at No.3. "Shiv is still our best player; chasing 224, we didn't need any heroics, we just needed some sensible batting, but, as we have seen in most of the games so far, we've been let down badly by our batting," Gibson said. "We've seen in the past Shiv take 40 balls to get 20 runs but, if he bats 50 overs, he will make up. If the other guys bat around him, we will get to 224."

West Indies have included batsman Travis Dowlin, the A team's captain, in the squad for the fourth ODI and Gibson said it was likely that he would play. "Travis Dowlin - who has had a reasonable (West Indies A Team) tour of Bangladesh - is joining us so we could see another change in the batting order."

Ramnaresh Sarwan, who picked up a hamstring injury in the second ODI, is still on the sidelines.