West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite admitted they let themselves down with the bat after suffering an ignominious loss of innings and 141 runs against India in the first Test match at Windsor Park, Dominica on Saturday. The home returned with scores of 150 and 130 in their two innings and could not even put up a fight.
On the other hand, India racked up a gargantuan score of 421-5 to take a huge lead of 271 runs. The visitors’ debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal top-scored with 171 runs and showed all the patience in his gutsy knock. Furthermore, Rohit Sharma scored 103, which was his 10th Test century, and added 229 runs with the rookie batter. Virat Kohli also scored a decent knock of 76 runs for the visitors.
Moreover, Ravichandran Ashwin scalped a total of 12 wickets in the match, returning with impressive figures of 5-60 and 7-71 in the first and second innings respectively.
Kraigg Brathwaite said in the post-match presentation, “I really want to thank the Dominica crowd for coming out. It was playing quite good on day one, we let ourselves down with the bat. It wasn’t spinning a lot. What disappointed me was I ddn’t get any runs. It is my job to lead from the front. First innings, we lost too many wickets, and as a senior guy I didn’t lead the way. (
When asked about playing the spin duo of Ashwin and Jadeja, Brathwaite said, “It is tough, they have good fields set. You need to have the right balance between defending and trying to score. We didn’t execute the shots we wanted to, and we need to learn to use the bat more.”
In fact, none of the Windies’ batters could go past the 50-run mark in any of the innings. Apart from hosts debutant Alick Athanaze, who returned with scores of 47 and 28, none of the West Indies batters showed any resistance in the middle.
Showering praise on the youngster, the skipper said, “He had a very good start, the way he batted he showed he loves playing. He did a job for us with the ball as well. His future is bright and he has a strong mind. He will do a lot for West Indies cricket.”
West Indies could not come up with a collective effort and it was just one-way traffic throughout the match. The second Test match will be played from 20th July at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad.
