West Indies head coach, Phil Simmons has lambasted his side’s batting display in the first Test against South Africa.
West Indies folded for 97 in their first innings and 162 in the second innings to lose by an innings and 63 runs inside three days.
Speaking to the media at the end of the match yesterday, Simmons attributed the display to bad shot selection.
“Bat judgment, bad shot selection, however you want to put it, you can’t be out for 97 runs and there isn’t any other question, it’s just a matter of bad shot selection in the first innings especially.”
While acknowledging the skills of the South African bowling attack, Simmons pointed out that the top nine batsmen in the XI all have Test half centuries and are capable of handling themselves.
“It is potent but all the guys here I think from one to nine have Test fifties against proper bowling attacks.
“Yes, they are potent, but the guys have made runs against all kinds of bowling attacks and I think the way we got out is not something we should be proud of and we have to come back and show what we are really made of in the second Test,” he said.
Roston Chase was the only batsman to reach the half century landmark with 62 while the next best score came from Jason Holder with 20.
Quizzed about the performances against top ranked sides as opposed to their dominance over lower ranked teams, Simmons said that he believed that West Indies should display the same intensity as they would with the lower ranked teams.
“I think we have to make sure when we play these teams that are higher up that we are just as intense or more intense as when we play the teams that are on a lower level. Saying that we have moved above South Africa, that should have been taken into consideration here and look at it the same way. I think we just have to be more clinical in the way we do things whether its teams above, number one or two,” Simmons stated.
The head coach highlighted that moving forward, it is a target of theirs to bat at least 100 overs with history showing when they reach this goal, the side scores over 300 and usually put themselves in a good position.
He said, “I think we need to bat well especially in the first innings. The other point is we need to bat what we did in the other matches where we made over 300 we batted over 100 overs and that has been one of our targets and we need to find a way to do that against this team. I think if you bat 100 overs against this team you put yourself in a good position and put them under pressure.”
