NOT SATISFIED with sharing the spoils!
West Indies coach Ottis Gibson did not hide his disappointment that the Caribbean cricketers were crushed by 196 runs in the second Test at Warner Park yesterday, allowing Pakistan to level the two-match Digicel cricket series 1-1.
“I feel disappointed that we have not been able to win the series. I think it was a series that was there for us to win, rather than they drawing the series,” Gibson said in a post-match interview.
The hosts went into the match with a 1-0 lead after a 40-run victory in the opening Test in Guyana.
Gibson blamed the below-par batting effort in both innings at Warner Park when the Windies only managed totals of 223 and 230, for costing the team a series triumph.
“In Guyana, it was tough conditions but we managed to hang in tough and we got the win. I think in this game we came and we just didn’t bat anywhere near our capabilities and I think it is more of a series lost than a series drawn,” he said.
“The ability and spirit that is in this team at the moment, we had enough, I think, to beat that Pakistan side and I know everybody else in the dressing room feels the same,” Gibson asserted.
“It is tough but we [have] got to pick ourselves up because India comes next week and that’s going to be another tough series as well.
“But obviously not losing the series is a good result for a team like us at the moment,” he admitted.
Gibson didn’t feel there were many positives apart from in the bowling department, even though he reckoned that Marlon Samuels’ return to Test cricket was encouraging.
“It is hard to find positives when we have not performed to the level that we expected. Of course, Pakistan are a very good bowling side in conditions like we had in Guyana and a little bit here but we all are very aware that we could have done a whole lot better.
“To draw the series, it feels like a positive but at the same time, we had a great opportunity to win a series and we feel like if we let that opportunity slip,” Gibson lamented.
“Ultimately, we haven’t produced big scores with the bat. The wicket in Guyana, fair enough, was a tough one to bat on, but this wicket is a funny sort of wicket because it started with quite a lot of bounce in it.”
Gibson said he felt the pitch got better for batting over the final two days but Monday’s end of play total of 130 for five after Pakistan declared their second innings at 377 for six was unsatisfactory.
“To come yesterday [Monday], when we struggled to get them out – granted that we dropped a lot of catches – the way we got out, it is a bit tough at the moment,” he said.
The coach said the turning point in the match was not clinically finishing off Pakistan’s first innings when they rallied from 194 for nine to 273 through a 79-run tenth-wicket stand between Tanvir Ahmed and Saeed Ajmal.
“That last-wicket partnership changed the course of the game. They got to 270 where a 200 score would have been probably a true reflection of the way we bowled in that first innings.
“The writing was on the wall then when we dropped so many catches and they went on and got two centuries in their innings.
“We got a couple of half-centuries to look at as positives when they got two centuries,” Gibson pointed out.
