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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Fidel Edwards said he was “up on pace” and was also pleased with that fact that he “used the variations well” in the West Indies victory over Afghanistan in their second ICC World T20 warm-up match on Monday afternoon.

The 30-year-old pacer is the most experienced bowler in the squad, with over a decade at the international level. On Monday he took three wickets in his four overs as the Windies dominated with an eight-wicket win at the P Sara Oval, headquarters of the Tamil Union Cricket & Athletic Club.

“The pitch was dry and in favour of the batsmen, which you can expect in Twenty20 cricket. I tried to mix up my pace and bowl a lot of slower balls and cutters and then slip in the quicker ball at pace. I felt I did that really well and it brought me some success,” Edwards said.

“I got wickets with the full length ball as well as the short ball so the mixture worked. I wasn’t bowling flat out, as it was a warm-up and we are still days away from the first match, but I was pleased that I was able to bowl aggressively and accurately on a pretty flat surface here.”

A confident Edwards added: “The result was pretty good for us. We did really well in the field, we bowled to our plans so you would have to say it was a good work-out for the bowlers in this match. We are trying to build up to Saturday when we face Australia.

“It is very hot out here and a few guys struggled a little bit with the heat, but everything is geared towards the first match so we are progressing well as we try to be spot on for the first match.”

The World T20 tournament, which features 12 teams, bowls off on Tuesday, September 18 and will climax on Sunday, October 7. The West Indies have been drawn in Group B alongside Australia and Ireland and both first round matches will be at the R Premadasa Stadium in Khettarama, Colombo. Their opening match will be against the Aussies on Saturday, September 22 followed by a clash with the Irish on Monday, September 24.

“It’s a big game. If we win that match it would set the standard. The last T20 we played against the Aussies in Barbados we won it and the guys are still confident from that result. It would be a big plus for us to beat them and get off to a winning start in this tournament. We won’t be targeting any one individual...we will be targeting everyone... they have a good team and to beat them you need to play total team cricket,” the Windies Number 20 said.

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