Two no balls swung the game in our favour: Simmons

 Lendl Simmons, who top scored with a brilliant 82 to steer West Indies to the final of the ICC World T20, said the two no balls bowled by the Indian bowlers swung the game in the favour of his team.

“I obviously think it (the two no balls) swing in our way...it could have been different ball game had I been out and a new batter (batsman) would have been in and you never know what could have happened,” Simmons said after West Indies beat India in the semifinals of World T20 here.

Simmons survived two chances. While Ravichandran Ashwin’s no-ball gave man-of-the-match Simmons ‘life’ at 18 when Jasprit Bumrah had taken the catch and then Pandya overstepped when the right-hander was on 50.

Heaping praise on Johnson Charles (52), Simmons said the opener took the pressure off him.

“He (Johnson Charles) took a lot of pressure off myself.  Getting those boundaries, he read the conditions well, he batted perfectly in the situation,” he said.

Simmons said he felt jittery going into yesterday’s match. “When I went out to bat, I had a clear mind what I had to do, because we had a target to chase, so we had a plan. Before the game I was a bit nervous, I was a bit (under) pressure from the guys as (I) came here a job , I feel, but overall it was good, we had a target to chase and, we got there.

“Today was my day, I had a bit of luck on my side, I rate my luck and things went the way I wanted it,” he said.

Simmons insisted the successful chase of 193-run target showed that West Indies were not dependent on just one person.

“There is no one man show in this team. Chris Gayle did not get off but we still managed to get over the line and that was a big total and seeing that he (Gayle) did not perform and we still were able to put up a fight and win the game, shows a lot of character from our players.”