Chanderpaul: It was my best innings
West Indies middle order batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul rates his unbeaten century in the just-concluded Test against England as his "best innings," describing batting on the last two days as pretty difficult.
Following are excerpts from his responses to various issues raised with him by journalists after his knock. Some comments from skipper Daren Ganga are also included below:
On whether his century was his best innings:
Yes it was my best Test innings. It was pretty difficult out there to deal with even the pacers. Monty was really difficult to bat, at any time anything could have happened. A ball could have jumped at my glove, a few did and it just happened that they landed in safe areas which I was happy about. For the pacers a few balls were kicking off from a length and a few squatted, it was a pretty tough wicket to bat on and we batted pretty well on it to get to that total.
On what the approach was in chasing down the total:
This morning we were thinking that if we batted the two sessions, until tea we will win the game. We went out after lunch and thought if we bat out the session we will win the game.
On him rotating the strike and trusting his batting partners:
It was one of the plans we had – to keep things rotating. If I took most of the strike and don't score then England will get on top of us so we tried to keep things going along and keep scoreboard ticking.
On his role as a senior player:
As a senior player in your team you have to show some sort of responsibility. You have to go out there and try your best. I am trying to do my best as a senior player.
On how he felt as he was walking off the field:
I was very disappointed, we had done all the hard work and were 60 runs short, if we had won the game we would have been really happy.
On the potential of the West Indies team:
We have a pretty good team with lots of potential in it. The guys are pretty young and need some time to mature. I think when we get that right we will start winning some games.
COMMENTS FROM CAPTAIN DAREN GANGA
On whether he was optimistic at the lunch interval:
I was still very optimistic, once Shiv (Chanderpaul) was out there I think we had a chance. He has played a brilliant innings, one of the best Test hundreds that I have seen and it is unfortunate that we could not go on. Chasing a score of 455, a lot of people didn't think we could get close to that, the manner in which we set things up yesterday gave us a wonderful opportunity to come here and get a victory. All credit must be given to the guys in the manner in which they batted. Getting to 60 runs short of that total showed a lot of character, a lot of strength and we are going to take a lot of positive from this game to the next Test match.
On what transpired between the second and third Test match to cause the marked change in performance:
After the loss at Headingley a lot of people had written us off in this series. We spoke about the process of winning a game and we set things up nicely here. There were points in the game where we faltered and it cost us in the end. These are things that we're going to learn from and I'm sure the guys are going to take a lot of confidence coming out of this encounter and moving forward to Durham.
On his own form:
It's difficult for me but the entire team showed a lot of character. If we had pulled off a victory it would not have bothered me in terms of how much I scored individually or how many anybody scored individually. I think what mattered is our team winning and what we do to contribute towards that. We showed a lot of character and a lot of the guys put their hand up and played with a lot of pride, a lot of purpose and it's only going to augur us well for the rest of the series.
On the dramatic change in the team's performance from Headingley to Old Trafford:
Headingley was not something that we were accustomed to. That was true English conditions, playing in temperatures so cold and where the ball swings around so much. Here (Old Trafford) the ball didn't swing that much and it was more Caribbean weather. We were working to a plan. We knew exactly where we went wrong in the last Test match and we were trying our utmost to not make the same mistakes and we got close to that. We didn't get over the line but we showed that we have a lot of character and showed improvement in areas of our game.
On whether Darren Sammy can help the team become more consistent:
We came with a cadre of players on this tour, players who put their hands up in our domestic cricket and looking and longing to play at the next level. Playing in his first Test match he showed exactly what he is capable of, being the first Test cricketer from St Lucia it shows what he has got in terms of his promise and what he can contribute to WI cricket. The young players are going to be given chances, we've got to persist and ensure that we keep improving, not just as individuals but as team as well.