Kraigg Brathwaite has praised Indian bowlers and said that they applied pressure and bowled with discipline to dismiss windies for 243 in the first innings. The pitch was on the slower side and Indian bowlers adjusted their line and length to reap the benefits.
West Indies were asked to follow-on and were 21 for 1 in the second innings. Brathwaite was the only batsman to show some mettle and scored gutsy 74 runs from 218 balls and batted close to five hours.
“I think I haven’t seen any bowlers bowl so well in the early stage of the innings. They bowled with a lot of discipline. They also set attacking fields and really backed it up with good disciplined bowling. There were in a good position with a big first innings score, and so they could set attacking field, and bowled to their field,” said Brathwaite, who top-scored with a defiant 74 in the first innings.
A Herculean task now awaits West Indies as they need to bat out of their skin to save the match, and Brathwaite believes his team-mates had the wherewithal to withstand the Indian bowlers’ pressure in the second innings.
“Today (Day 3) was not the best day for us as a batting unit. Now we have to do that tomorrow (Day 4), go out there, start from the beginning and assess the conditions. It won’t be easy. But we believe in ourselves and want to go with a positive mind set,” he said.
India dominated the day thanks to Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav. They both took four wickets and each and got a lot out of wicket as compared to hosts, who were lacklustre and wayward in their approach. They took wicket out of the equation and executed their skills perfectly.
Shami also took his 50th wicket and became the second fastest Indian pace bowler to 50 Test wickets. He achieved the landmark in 13 Tests.
“As a batsman, you have to know when you have to curb your aggression and defend, or when to attack. I think it’s all about individual batting as a whole. It’s about having confidence in what you do and building partnerships and bat throughout the fourth day. We have some really good batsman. Today (Day 3) it didn’t go well but tomorrow (Day 4) we should come back and bat really well and put some runs on the board,” Brathwaite signed off.
India would like to wrap up the game on the fourth day itself and enjoy a day off. WI will have to dig deep and bat out of their skin to avoid an embarrassing defeat on home soil.