'We Batted and Fielded Poorly': Hooper

West Indies captain Carl Hooper has criticized his team's batting and fielding after the crushing innings and 112-run defeat by India. West Indies managed only 157 and 188 in their two innings after India amassed 457. It was the West Indies first innings defeat against India.

"We batted poorly," Hooper said on Saturday. "The Indians showed us how to bat on this wicket. The batting just didn't click. When you score as low as we did, you can't expect to win test matches." Hooper, 36, playing in his 100th test, was himself guilty of playing a poor shot in the first innings after scoring 23.

"You can't place the blame at the door of one or two players," he said. "It's about all 11 playing together which just didn't happen here."

Hooper also slammed his team's fielding performance in the match, which ended halfway through the fourth day. "The catching was pathetic. We dropped Virender Sehwag when he was on 70-odd and had to pay for it."

Man-of-the-match Sehwag went on to score an explosive 147 to put India on top right from the start.

"The way we performed in the field there was just no question of converting half-chances," Hooper added. "The ground fielding was okay in patches but the catching was downright poor."

Hooper said his team were in the same boat as India as far as overseas form was concerned. "This series reminds me of our 2-1 win in the Caribbean earlier this year," he said.

Guyanese Hooper top-scored in that series with 579 runs, including a career-best 233 in the first drawn match in front of his home crowd in Georgetown. "We had been one test down then, and it could be history repeating itself. It's going to be very, very tough in these conditions but we're still hopeful about the next test."

The second match of the three-test series will be played in Madras from October 17-21.

* Taken from news wire reports.