NORTH STAFF, Antigua, GMC – Head coach Phil Simmons has praised West Indies batting maturity in the recently concluded Sri Lanka series, highlighting a new batsmen’s hunger for big scores and their increasing ability to bat for long periods.
The two-match series ended in a nil for everyone after the West Indies batted the last day of the opening Test to save that match and Sri Lanka responded well by blocking the hosts on the final day of the second Test end is Good Friday.
“The biggest takeaway is that we can bat on a fifth day pitch to save a game, draw a Test match and it’s something we haven’t done for a while and we needed to make sure we can do it, ”Simmons said.
“And then the team’s attitude continues to grow, the attitude of guys who want to make runs and want to score hundreds, and it was good to see the captain (Kraigg Brathwaite) get a hundred after a long, fruitless period.”
He added: “The ability to bat and score the runs we wanted to do [also impressed me]. We talked about scoring 400 in first pubs and 350 in first pubs and we did it in one.
“But just the overall attitude to batting overall in Test matches, it continues to improve.”
West Indies got a half-century from Rahkeem Cornwall in the first innings of the opening and Test innings before marrying Nkrumah Bonner in the second inning, with rookie Kyle Mayers breaking in with half a century.
Setting an unlikely 375 to win, West Indies resumed the final day at 34 for one and easily found all three sessions with a skilful batting effort.
Brathwaite was the highlight of the second Test, hitting 126 in the first inning to net his ninth and followed up with 85 in the second inning.
There was also a fifty-first inning for Cornwall while Mayers and former captain Jason Holder also scored fifty centuries in the second innings as West Indies declared at 280 for four.
Simmons said there is now a common theme among the batting group where they recognized it was important to spend time in the crease in order to collect runs.
“I think the important thing now is that everyone is looking to occupy the crease. People look to bat for long periods, ”Simmons noted.
“And our depth is getting deeper because Alzarri Joseph and Rahkeem Cornwall have shown within the last three series that they can all bat and can provide that partnership that runs 50-100 later down to take us to the 350s and 400s. “So it was great to see Rahkeem’s batting come to the fore and in total the batting has stood up in the last four Test matches and this is great because before that, the bowling carried us.”