Deserved success at Kensington
It was an awesome performance.
The captain's view by Carl Hooper
Stabroek News
May 9, 2002
We played positive aggressive cricket and gained the initiative early in the game on the first morning that resulted in our emphatic victory.
Congratulations to the boys on a job well done. The toss turned out to be an important one and contrary to my beliefs which I stated in my match preview I was surprised at the pace and bounce that the Kensington Oval pitch had on the first day. I thought that it was ideal for the fast bowlers and after the first over bowled by Mervyn Dillon, I was pleased that I had decided to ask the Indians to take first strike.
The 102 that we dismissed them for in the first innings set the game up on the first day. A first ball wicket was a dream start then the early dismissal of Sachin Tendulkar and the Indians were up against it. I thought that early in the game the mental edge that we needed so badly in this test match in order to defeat the Indians was gained. We never let up and it was good to see our batting and bowling coming together for the first time in a very long while.
It was an awesome performance.
We played positive aggressive cricket and gained the initiative early in the game on the first morning that resulted in our emphatic victory.
Congratulations to the boys on a job well done. The toss turned out to be an important one and contrary to my beliefs which I stated in my match preview I was surprised at the pace and bounce that the Kensington Oval pitch had on the first day. I thought that it was ideal for the fast bowlers and after the first over bowled by Mervyn Dillon, I was pleased that I had decided to ask the Indians to take first strike.
The 102 that we dismissed them for in the first innings set the game up on the first day. A first ball wicket was a dream start then the early dismissal of Sachin Tendulkar and the Indians were up against it. I thought that early in the game the mental edge that we needed so badly in this test match in order to defeat the Indians was gained. We never let up and it was good to see our batting and bowling coming together for the first time in a very long while.
Mervyn Dillon totally deserved his Man-of-the-Match award, for his 8 wickets in the game, but let's not forget Cuffy, Collins and Sanford and even golden armed Ramnaresh Sarwan, who came up with two wickets when we needed it in the second innings.
The batting held its own with Lara, Chanderpaul, Sarwan and myself, putting the game beyond the Indians in the first innings. Chanderpaul continued with his rich vein of form and played well whilst reaching his fourth test hundred. Batting with him has been a delight and I know there are many more hundreds in store for him.
After victory in four days there are still some concerns. The opening position and the way our lower order batsmen are folding remains a worry. To date we have managed to hold up the Indians after they had gained an early wicket in all of our innings but one. Sarwan, batting at number three has played well and dug us out of many sticky situations. I would like to see him carrying on to three figure scores after doing so much of the initial hard work. I know that his first test hundred is just around the corner.
We have batted well in the middle but we must begin to do it all the way down to number eleven. There are numerous occasions in the past and even in this current series when we have surrendered the initiative to the opposition by collapsing from relatively strong positions. This is a major concern now and we need to get it right if we're going to move forward. I still have faith that our openers will come good, because they are the ones that we are looking towards setting up good launching platforms for huge scores.
The bowling generally I thought was penetrative even though we were still slightly inconsistent with our line and length. Towards the end of the Indians' second innings I was a bit disappointed with our bowling to a slugging Zaheer Khan. I would put it down to our bowlers being inexperienced and Khan having a good day. I would like to see yorkers, slower balls etc; all of which could have surprised Khan.
Last year against the South Africans I can remember us being unable to remove Alan Donald and along with Shaun Pollock they batted South Africa into a very safe position after being in trouble. We must remove these lower order batsmen as these partnerships can be very frustrating and even cause you tolose games. In the second Test against the Indians it happened with Srinath putting on 30 odd valuable runs with VVS Laxman. The end result - we lost by 37 runs.
The Indians no doubt have been dealt a body blow and it will be interesting to see how they respond if we can put them under early pressure in the fourth Test in Antigua.
I still think that they have got their problems with team selection and losing the last test match in four days would not have made it any easier. I expect Kumble to play in Antigua, but at whose expense I don't know. We cannot afford to be complacent, in fact we must be striving to turn the screws even deeper. We want to bat, bowl and field even better and I know this team is capable of doing that. The spirit in the team is high and without a doubt the boys are looking forward to Antigua. We have done what we knew all along, and that is being competent enough to beat India. The win has done us a world of good and I expect us to be even more competitive than we were in Barbados. It is important to go 2-1 up, but with players like Tendulkar in an Indian side you can take them for granted at your peril. The Antigua Test match should be an exciting one and here's to a West Indies victory. God Bless.