Charles: 'I had no pressure'

The statistics of Johnson Charles’s 97 runs off 100 balls might seem innocuous to someone who was reading it without having seen the written commentary or heard about the match situation. With three top order batsmen getting out in Overs 2, 4 and 5, one might have thought that the 24 year old opening batsman would have retreated. No such luck for the Indians.

The second ODI of the Celkon Mobile Cup Tri-Nation Series at Sabina Park in Jamaica went down to the wire on Sunday and ended victoriously for the West Indies team with resolute batting from fast bowlers Kemar Roach and Tino Best. While the former has been known to bat with a level head, his batting partner has often been chastised for not playing according to what the match situation demanded.

Virat Kohli was deputizing for the injured Indian captain MS Dhoni. After the match, he was asked about the many bowling changes in the last 10 overs, after Charles hit a Umeshkumar Yadav delivery to mid-off and was caught by Ishant Sharma. Specifically responding to why he used slower bowlers, Kohli said "I thought it might hit the pad, or force them on to the front foot or get an inside edge, or get an edge to the slips. That was the whole idea." He felt that with fast bowlers, it was a much more expensive option since with an edge, the ball could easily fly to the boundary. "You’d rather let the batsmen try to play a shot rather than just letting him edge one and get 4," he continued.

The stand-in captain further explained that he had to make these changes because the wicket played differently in the second innings. "The ball didn’t do anything. No uneven bounce. No two paced wicket. No turn at all for spinners," he told journalists while commending the way his bowlers bowled on the wicket.

Johnson Charles also came in for praise from Kohli. "The way Johnson Charles batted, it impressed me. I think he’s someone who has done really well for them in the T20 World Cup as well and he’s been doing consistently well for West Indies and it’s a great thing for them," he said. "It was good to see a young player from West Indies coming through and playing that match winning knock when we were putting pressure on them," added Kohli.

But for Charles, he saw the situation differently. "I had no pressure, to be honest. I know my scoring areas. Seeing the field placements, I just went out and played to my strengths and played shots, scoring to the field placings," said the attacking opening batsman. He blamed his performance in Friday’s match against Sri Lanka on poor rhythm.

On Sunday, he acknowledged the role good hand-eye coordination played in his high score and said that for that game, he went out to the crease with more intent. "I knew exactly what my scoring areas were and did my thing. I have been in this situation before but this time was kind of unique. It was a situation where you really had to get stuck in, get some singles and keep the scoring going," he said.

Johnson Charles has credited his one year stint at the Sagicor High Performance Centre for helping to improve his game. He said "we did a lot of batting drills. So it has helped me a lot, batting wise, especially playing straight. That’s the biggest help it has given to me."

Kieron Pollard, subbing for ODI captain Dwayne Bravo who is nursing an injury, agreed that at the start, even with those three early wickets, it was not pressure. "We have experienced guys in the team, guys who have captained the team before, guys who have played cricket all around the world and their knowledge and their experience, I know, was always going to help me in going about the task of trying to lead the West Indies. The pressure wasn’t there. It was just a matter of us doing the right things and putting the ball in the right areas and scoring one more run than the opposition," Pollard reasoned.

Both he and Charles agreed on where the pressure was felt – when the last pair had to score 10 runs off 36 balls. Said Johnson "when they got across the line, it was a huge pressure off my shoulders!" while Pollard noted that the middle order batsmen "have to finish it for the team, rather than letting Number 10 and Number 11."

Birthday celebrant Kemar Roach was congratulated by the Captain who gave this opinion of his bowling performance: "Roachy has been doing a fantastic job for us for the last 12 – 18 months. It’s just a matter of consistency. When you look at him with the bat, you can see he can bat. This is the second game he has got over the line for us. He has to know his talent. He can really bat."

Johnson Charles would no doubt hope that his batting performances result in the bowlers being able to watch the team’s future victories from the dressing room. His batting style continues to be one which takes it to the bowlers, has seen him score back-to-back ODI centuries and now have an average of 37.06.

He declared that "Johnson Charles will always be Johnson Charles. As always I was aggressive and that’s who I am. Today, I carried on being aggressive although we lost 3 wickets early, but the aggressiveness still had to be, because you can’t score runs if you go in a shell."

View pictures of the Jamaica leg of the series here http://www.flickr.com/photos/61455944@N00/sets/