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KINGSTON (CMC):

West Indies white-ball captain Shai Hope has admitted that his side's batting collapse in the final overs of their innings is to blame for their three-wicket loss to Australia in the opening T20I at Sabina Park on Sunday.

Half centuries by Roston Chase and Hope put the West Indies in a strong position at 152 for two at the end of the 15th over, and they would have been eyeing a target of over 200 with their powerful middle order line-up to come.

However, they managed just 37 runs from the final five overs, while losing six wickets, with Australian pacer Ben Dwarshuis picking up three wickets in the penultimate over of the innings.

Speaking in a post-match press conference, Hope said that weak finish to the innings left them about 20 to 30 runs short.

"We started well with the bat again, we started with that impetus that we always speak about, but we fell away in the back end, and I'd say we left ourselves about 20 or 30 runs short in the back end with that power that we possess in our middle order, so we have ourselves to blame in the batting department.

"I reckon the guys were probably just going just a little bit too hard, we didn't really respect the game of cricket in that particular period," Hope said.

"Maybe we thought we needed a bit too many runs in that particular situation, and I feel it's something that we really need to look at and learn from, especially for the next game in this very quick turnaround.

"We've got some very good batting in our middle to lower order, so we can't really falter like that on too many occasions, so we have to learn from it quickly," he added.