Guyana [West Indies], August 18 (ANI): West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite admitted that his side ‘fell short’ with the bat and should have put more runs on the board in the first innings against South Africa in the second Test at Providence Stadium, in Guyana.
After the first Test ended in a draw, the Proteas stood tall and edged the Caribbean side by seizing the opportunities that came their way.
West Indies had their moments but were not consistent enough to capitalise on them. In the first innings, led by Shamar Joseph’s blitz, the hosts managed to reduce South Africa to 97/9.
But after a valiant 63-run stand between Dane Piedt and Nandre Burger, South Africa managed to put 160 on board. In reply, the West Indies folded on 144 and conceded a 16-run lead.
“Yeah, if you look at it, obviously it was quite big (Brathwaite said on South Africa’s last-wicket stand on the opening day of the Test). But bowling them out for 160, I was happy. That partnership for them was, was good. You know, it’s cricket where partnerships do happen. So, I won’t really stress on that too much,” Brathwaite said, as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.
“But what I would say is our first innings total needed to be bigger. We needed to get a lead from it. I think that was very important. You can never complain about the bowlers’ effort to bowl them out for 160, but yeah, the batting effort in the first innings just wasn’t big enough. We had to fight back into the game. And, in the end, we fell short,” he added.
Despite ending up on the wrong side of the result, the West Indies had a few positives to take away from the game.
Shamar missed the first Test but returned to rattle South Africa’s batting line-up. Pacer Jayden Seales gave his all and ended up becoming West Indies’ highest wicket-taker in the series. He scythed 12 scalps, including 6/61 in the second innings in the second Test.
“I think bowling-wise, you look at Shamar coming back in, not playing the first Test, and coming in bowling out South Africa on the first day. Jayden, throughout the series, continued to keep coming despite the hot conditions. That was a positive. You see the two spinners, one of the first time two spinners played together in the Caribbean, and they did well, in particular in this game where both of them were under three runs an over. That’s one thing we asked for, and that was great to see,” Brathwaite said.
South Africa went on to put 246 runs on the board and the West Indies fell short and lost the second Test by 40 runs. (ANI)
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