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| AFP |
Australia stand-in captain Shane Watson insisted his side were simply "not good enough" as they crashed to defeat in the fourth ODI with the West Indies.
Watson won the toss and sent the hosts in to bat first and midway through their innings over the decision appeared to be an inspired one with the locals struggling on 106-4 in good batting conditions.
But man-of-the-match Kieron Pollard entered the fray and treated Australia's bowlers with disdain as he smashed five fours and eight sixes on his way to a whirlwind 69-ball century after also being dropped four times.
Pollard's innings completely changed the complexion of the match with the West Indies finishing up on 294-7 and winning by 42 runs to take a 2-1 series lead with one match to play.
"There's no doubt it's not good enough for us, we just didn't execute enough, didn't go to the plan to be able to make sure that we're able to try and restrict him (Pollard) as much as we could," Watson said.
"It's a small ground so there's no doubt that with his power, that is always keeping him in the game but dropping him three times probably certainly didn't help as well as execution in the last 10 overs especially.
"We've seriously got to sit down and make sure that we get it right for the next game because we can't afford to be in the position that we were and then let Kieron get away the way he did because in the end it meant that we were chasing a much bigger total than we really should have been."
Despite the hosts' sizeable total, which was helped by a whopping 145 runs from their last 12 overs, Watson stood by his decision to bowl first.
"There was certainly enough in the wicket and that was the reason why I did bowl first," Watson said.
"And there still was a little bit of moisture even when I went out to bat in the second innings so in the end I'm very comfortable with the decision I made.
"Everything was going okay through that middle period until Kieron sort of exploded so if I had my time again I certainly would have done the same thing."
But while Watson lamented the performance of his bowlers, particularly at the death, he also put his hand up and admitted it was time that both he and fellow opener Dave Warner registered big scores to help set up Australia's innings.
In the first four ODIs, Watson has only hit 84 runs at 21 with a high score of 28 and Warner has not done much better with 91 at 22.75 and a best effort of 40.
"(On) the batting side of things, me (and) Dave Warner, we've got to go on and get a big score to really set the platform for the batting innings," Watson said.
"Unfortunately, I haven't been good enough, getting off to a good start but then not going on with it. That's something I personally need to sort out because it isn't good enough especially when chasing a bigger total."
