West Indies captain, Kraigg Brathwaite, has admitted things did not go according to plan following their heavy defeat in the first Test against South Africa yesterday.
Speaking to the media after their innings and 63-run defeat, Brathwaite said that he believed that some days are good while others are not but all provide an opportunity to learn from them.
“Obviously we had plans but things didn’t go to plan,” he said.
“For me it’s just to refresh. Obviously its history so you can’t bring that back,” the opener said while adding, “Well you know you’ve got good days and bad days, everyday wouldn’t be perfect so for me that’s it, we didn’t have a good first innings and as batters we have to do better.”
Brathwaite, though, was impressed with Roston Chase who scored a gutsy half century while all the other batsmen failed to pass 20 in either of the two innings.
“Roston, he showed a lot of fight. He batted over 130 balls [156] and that’s probably an example we could use going forward and just by watching how he went about his innings and something as simple as that could help us as batsmen so I am very impressed and he showed a lot of fight and was good to see,” the captain said.
In the absence of batting coach, Monty Desai, Brathwaite said that while he was missed, the batting performance was not a direct result of his absence and he credited the coaches currently with them for doing “a good job.”
Brathwaite confessed that it was their batting in the first innings where they posted a paltry 97 after winning the toss and electing to bat that ultimately set up the match in South Africa’s favour coupled with some mistakes at crucial points in the match.
Nevertheless, taking away the positives from the Test that ended inside three days, the captain said that it was a good experience to actually face the South African bowling attack but now it’s just a matter of sticking to their plans and executing.
“It’s good we saw how they bowled so you get that experience against them and it’s just for the next game to be fully locked in to that plan.
“We know it will be challenging throughout whether it’s the first ball or so I think the guys were very potent as you said but I just think its back that plan I think you got to be tough and just enjoy it,” Brathwaite said.
From a West Indies stand point, the skipper credited his bowlers for their efforts in keeping South Africa relatively in check for most of their innings despite Quinton de Kock’s century.
He said, “I thought the bowlers did a very good job keeping the scoring rate under three for the majority of the time.
“I think Quinton de Kock played an outstanding innings and I can’t really have fault on the bowlers at all at times everyone put in 100 percent and I think he played a superb innings and we didn’t get a chance and we did had a chance but Quinton played a very good knock,” he added.
