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“Dig deep. Don’t give up. Test cricket is tough.”
With the bat, Kraigg Brathwaite is not very expansive. Likewise with words. Despite losing to England in just two days and an hour at Lord’s, the West Indies captain made it plain to his men in those witty remarks to never give up.
West Indies came to Lord’s with the intention of winning the opening Test of the three-match series, Brathwaite acknowledged. Before he was hurt, Kemar Roach and Shamar Joseph, two of his fast bowlers, intended to spoil James Anderson’s final bow. In the end, though, West Indies were only the supporting act at the Anderson extravaganza, which was seen by packed audiences, including one on Friday, when the supporters were reimbursed by the ECB due to the game’s shorter than 15 overs.
“For me to the boys [the message] is generally: things will not always go as planned,” Brathwaite said after the defeat by an innings and 114 runs. “Also, we came to win the Test and it didn’t happen. But [there are] still two Tests remaining in this series and we still have six Tests remaining for the year. So it’s all a build-up. We can’t believe that because of this [England] win, we are out of it or anything. We got to dig deep, we got to keep believing and keep stressing on it. It’s easy to give up. It’s easy to say, ‘well, I can’t get it done’, but we got to keep believing and keep supporting one another.”
In the first and second innings (41.4 and 47 overs, respectively), West Indies failed to reach 50 overs at bat. The highest score for the tailenders, Gudakesh Motie, who flung his bat around on day three, was an undefeated thirty-one, but no batter reached fifty. What was unfortunate for the West Indies was that their bowlers, particularly rookie Gus Atkinson, were so easily overcome and made simple mistakes at the slightest prod from England’s bowlers.
Jayden Seales, a fast bowler who claimed four wickets on the second day, had drawn attention to the West Indies’ batting collapse on the opening day, when they were bowled for 121. Brathwaite agreed, having made 6 and 4 at Lord’s.
“Batting first, you want to put runs on the board in the first innings especially. We know where we went wrong. We know where we can be better. My thing for the group is stay mentally tough. It’s Test cricket. You go through successful periods, you go through tough periods, but you just got to be strong and believe in your ability. You got to believe that something’s around the corner. Just keep doing the right things. And everything will work out.”