ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, CMC – Bowling coach Roddy Estwick expects a positive approach to pay dividends for West Indies, as they enter today’s final day of the second Test chasing a world-record 456 to level the three-Test series.
West Indies finished the penultimate day at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on 171 for four, still requiring a further 285 runs to overhaul their massive target and grab their first win of what has been a tough tour.
Estwick praised the manner in which West Indies had approached the second innings yesterday and said the remaining batsmen needed to continue in this vein.
“A lot will depend on the first hour or the first session and how Roston Chase and (Jermaine) Blackwood approach it,” Estwick said following the day’s play.
“I thought today we played reasonably well. We probably lost two wickets too many but at least I like how we were positive. I found in the first innings we got stuck and we were unable to rotate the strike and we weren’t able to turn it over.
“Today we looked a lot better, Kraigg played wonderfully well. I thought he was a bit unlucky with his decision but I thought they came out and showed positive intent and that kind of spread through the team.
Resuming Monday on 114 for one, Pakistan declared their second innings on 227 for two at lunch, to put themselves in pole position to take victory.
Opener Leon Johnson then fell cheaply for nine and Darren Bravo for 13 as West Indies slipped to 60 for two, before Brathwaite stroked a top score of 67 and Blackwood, an unbeaten 41, to keep their side alive.
Estwick said the final day would be a challenging one and it was important that West Indies remained focussed throughout, and not let their guard down.
“[They have to] keep playing the same way, keep being positive. If you’re positive, you get those close fielders from around the bat and then you have a better chance of survival so I would say keep playing the same way, assess the situation, make sure you don’t relax too much because this is Test cricket,” the former Barbados seamer stressed.
“You’ve got to be patient. This is Test cricket, it is very, very hard and you can see that the conditions here are very, very tough. They’re unforgiving and you’ve got to keep working, you can’t afford to relax.”
Estwick said one of the big lessons West Indies would take away from the ongoing tour was the value of discipline and focus.
“When you’re bowling you’ve got to be patient. You have to learn to bowl one side of the wicket,” he pointed out.
“One of the differences between the two teams is when their batters got in, they got big hundreds and I hope that our players would learn from that and move their averages from the mid-30s to the 40s and 45, and the only way you can do that is by churning out big scores.
