That’s the parallel West Indies head coach Daren Sammy used to describe his team’s progress following contrasting performances in the opening two Tests of their ongoing series against hosts New Zealand.
Thanks to Justin Greaves’ unbeaten 202, Shai Hope’s 140, and Kemar Roach’s 58 not-out, the Caribbean side managed to put a 531-run target under threat in the first Test before ultimately settling for a draw. They were then subjected to an embarrassing 9-wicket defeat inside three days in the second encounter, after collapsing to 205 and 128, respectively.
Hope (47) and John Campbell (44) came closest to producing half-centuries for the visiting batsmen in the Wellington Test that followed. However, it was the failure to convert those scores that was of significance to Coach Sammy.
“You need batsmen who get starts to carry on,” he said. “We got five batters getting starts in the first innings, and nobody converted. In a team, you want people to step up, and in this Test match, nobody stood up for us.”
While first crediting the West Indies for placing themselves in advantageous positions, Sammy then noted their inability to remain engaged for crucial match-defining sequences.
New Zealand 278 & 57-1 (Conway 28*, Williamson 16*, Phillip 1-17) beat West Indies 205 & 128 (Hodge 35, Greaves 25, Duffy 5-38) by nine wickets
In the wake of batting 163.3 second-innings overs in the Christchurch Test six days ago, the West Indies faced a combined 121.2 overs across both their innings in Wellington as their helpless display was rewarded with a humiliating defeat before Tea on Day 3 of the second Test.
Windies captain Roston Chase said, “The batting is a bit of a concern. We came here [after the first Test] and our batters never really capitalized.”
The Caribbean side began the day trailing New Zealand by 41 runs with eight wickets in hand. Kavem Hodge and Brandon King returned to see off an incident-free first half hour, adding 18 runs to West Indies’ overnight score of 32 for 2, before the latter was run-out for 22.
A first-ball boundary and a few strikerotations later, Shai Hope (5) had presented a gift of a return-catch to Michael Rae in the same over. The West Indies found themselves with four wickets down while still 15 runs in the red.
West Indies 205 & 32-2 (King 15*, Campbell 14, Rae 1-4) trail New Zealand 278 (Hay 61, Conway 60, Phillip 3-70) by 41 runs
As Day 2 of the Wellington Test drew to a close, one could not help but wonder how possible a third day would have been had the teams gotten closer to delivering the scheduled 90 overs in a day. However, on a day without rain interruptions, only 75.4 overs were bowled. It’s incredible to think that after two days, this Test isn’t as advanced as it could have been.
At their second time at bat, the West Indies needed to erase a 73-run deficit before setting New Zealand a target. However, before that could happen, their openers needed to survive 40 minutes until the close of play. While Brandon King (15*) aced the assignment, John Campbell (14) decided to leave one from Michael Rae that would only go on to clip his off-stump.
Cue Plan B, which was to ensure Kavem Hodge was batting on Day 3. While Hodge (3*) will return to the crease with King, the West Indies lost the wicket of nightwatchman Anderson Phillip, out LBW on review to Jacob Duffy for a duck. They ended the day on 32 for 2, still 41 runs away from the hosts batting again.
Cricket West Indies (CWI) on Tuesday announced that opener Tagenarine Chanderpaul has been ruled out of the second Test between the West Indies and New Zealand due to a side strain.
“Chanderpaul suffered the injury while playing a shot in the nets on Tuesday,” CWI said.
“The left-handed batter is currently being examined by the medical team to determine the full extent of the injury as well as his availability for the remainder of the series.”
In the opening Test, the 29-year-old Chanderpaul made 52 and six.
Cricket West Indies (CWI) President Dr Kishore Shallow has maintained that there is no intention to fire West Indies Head Coach Daren Sammy, despite his losing record since taking charge of all formats earlier this year.
The 41-year-old Sammy, who was appointed all-format coach in April, has faced mounting pressure following a string of bad results.
Since then, the West Indies were swept by Australia (0-3) and India (0-2) in their Test series and have won just six of their last 18 Twenty20 Internationals and three of their nine One-Day Internationals.
However, speaking during an exclusive interview on Isports i95.5 FM on Thursday, Shallow said Sammy’s job would not hinge on the results of the ongoing Test series against New Zealand.
“I don’t think that whether we win this series or not will be a result of the current composition of our selection system. It is not, because before each series if we go across and ask across the region if it is the correct squad chosen for the tour, most people will be in agreement, so clearly that is not the issue.
