Chasing a victory target of 346 after India’s second innings declaration at 217 for seven, the West Indies struggled against the tourists’ pacemen and were bowled out meekly for 108. “At the top, predominantly, we haven’t been consistent; not getting starts we’ve been looking for”. “You can’t win Test matches unless you put runs on the board”.
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We didn’t come over here thinking or expecting to roll them over.
They faced a testing spell from Ishant and Bhuvneshwar who were using the 20-over-old ball well enough. We didn’t get the result we wanted. We’re trying to build a side.
India declared midway through the morning session in St Lucia, giving themselves a maximum of 87 overs to push for victory, but they needed just over half of those as the Windies were skittled for 108.
Centuries by India middle-order batsmen Ravichandran Ashwin and Wriddhiman Saha could not prevent West Indies from marginally gaining the upper hand on day two of the third test in St Lucia on Wednesday.
“Most of the batsmen have spent time initially but they haven’t ticked on the scoreboard as well as we would like”. Kumar was the chief wrecker in the first innings as well, bagging five wickets to set India on the path of a win.
“We have the key is to assess it as a batting group and decide whether to go for the win or the draw”, he added. But Ashwin-Saha stuck in.
“If you see earlier in the first innings, I did not get as much swing. The momentum was with us and it is a massive factor in cricket, in all formats, especially in Test cricket and that can only be attained by playing consistent cricket”, Kohli said. “It is tough to predict for today, but there is something in pitch for bowlers so I think we can get them out again”, he added. If you don’t put up a good first innings total, you are chasing the game. “The guys need to dig a little deeper”, he said.
Holder said it would be hard for his team to cope with the loss.
The changes to the bowling attack seemed sound from the outset, and proved to be so. “I played Test cricket after nearly one and a half years”.
There were obvious differences in the course of day five of these two respective Tests. “It is far different from first-class cricket”, he said.
“In hindsight, later on this could very well be a series-defining knock because we were in some trouble yesterday and there was every chance that we could be skittled out”.
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Bhuvneshwar’s last Test was in Australia in January past year, as he has been playing limited-overs cricket, but due to injury problems he has been in and out of the playing XI. So it is a transition that we have to open and adjust to as quickly as possible. “He’s back to the nets and back to fielding and we will take a call on that”, the Delhi-born said.
