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GROS ISLET, St Lucia (CMC) — Head Coach Phil Simmons has defended West Indies’ preparation for the opening Test following their crushing innings defeat inside 2 ½ days here yesterday but said they now needed to raise their intensity and rebound strongly in the second Test beginning here this week.

The home side produced two lacklustre batting efforts, rolled over for 97 in their first innings and then for 162 in their second, to slide to a heavy loss late in an extended first session on yesterday’s third day at the Daren Sammy National Stadium.

While West Indies spent a month prior to the opening Test in a high-performance camp, Simmons said they had been undermined by poor batting.

“Bad judgement, bad shot selection — however you want to put it. You can’t be out for 97 [in the first innings] and there’s any other question [about the result]. It’s just about bad selection in the first innings especially,” Simmons lamented afterwards.

Read more at Barbados Today

Exactly!

No Coach Simmonds, the entire team and coaching staff were unprepared for what happened, don't pass the buck, apart from Blackwood, Mayers and Cornwall, the rest of the batsmen were out playing defensive strokes or leaving the ball alone.

Coach we lost the match the moment we decided to bat first and very poor team selection. First, Powell should have been in the final 11 as opener and Bravo, as bad as his form is, is much better suited to face the high quality bowlers of South Africa. Cornwall was a huge mistake especially with Chase in the team. In as much as I asked for Joseph to be rested he would have been better suited than Cornwall. If we don't make these changes it's going to be another 3 day test

In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com My team for the 2nd test is:
Kraig 2 Powell 3. Bravo 4. Myers 5. Hope 6. Chase 7. Blackwood 8. Holder 9. Joseph 10 Roach 11. Seales.

I like Joshua De Silva but he is not ready yet. So Hope as wicketkeeper. In so doing we bat deeper and we have an extra seamer

Give Cornwall and Da Silva the Bench...Hopefully Gabriel is still not injured or else joseph and give Bravo a try.

In reply to Sylobaby

Hope?

He's one of the main problems with the batting...a Test average of just 25! I would prefer to keep da Silva. He took four catches, and at least averages over 30 for now.

The reality is that Simmons is right. The batting is dire! There are no quick-fixes.

In reply to mikesiva

So de batting is dire and you choose to bat first under grey skies?

Further, the SA team wud have been playing at least 2 debutant batsmen, Their practice match was interrupted by the weather and u won de toss on a day widout a hint of blue in de sky.

Having all dat info at ones disposal and still choosing to bat first has to be heights of delusion especially after our performance against NZ.

In reply to Maispwi

So the batting was holding its own in the past few games so there was probably little reason to think it'd be so poor this last game. As for grey skies, studies show that the weather plays no part in swing. Not only that, probably the game's premier swing bowler, Jimmy Anderson says the overcast conditions does not affect movement in the air. Also, with two spinners in the side batting first might have seemed reasonable.

The problem is that WI batted badly in this game. Hopefully they improve in the next game.

I am sure weather plays a part in the swinging of the ball, just basic logic, in heavy overcast conditions, because the humidity is higher, it presents more resistance for the ball to move through the air, therefore the seam combine with the thick air, would take the ball in the intended direction. That's the reason why the ball tends to swings more in England and NZ.

In reply to dayne

Well the scientists who have studied it and swing bowling's major practitioner say you are wrong. Don't know why it's basic logic..

Just to help you a bit. Humid air is less dense than dry air. This is from a NASA scientist:

In reply to spider

Well that is some revelation, I would like to ask that scientist, why is it that humid air is more difficult to breathe than dry air?

In reply to dayne

I don't if that is so. But if it is, does that have anything to do with its effect on a cricket ball?

In reply to Yamfoot

Me too!


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In reply to CaribbeanCricket.com

Head Coach should have the guts to accept his failure as coach.....stop blaming everyone...

In reply to spider

You can easily verify if it is easier to breathe dry air over humid air, just take a jog in the park on a very humid overcast day and see the effects.

In reply to dayne

Ok. But still, how does ability to breathe affect the ball or is any indication how the ball behaves?

In reply to spider

Where did I mention anything about swing? I am not getting into a debate about what the ball does or doesn't do, even if from observation I am convinced that climatic conditions do in fact cause variations depending on characteristics of the ball itself.

Under grey skies with very little sunlight, a first day pitch will remain fresher for longer not being affected by direct sunlight. So a first day pitch at Gros Islet which wud normally settle down within an hour or 2, never did until much later in the day.

The conditions were also cooler and much more comfortable for the fielding side than if the sun was out in its full glory.

And when faced with a similar type of attack in New Zealand, our batsmen did not exactly cover themselves in glory. Neither did they do so when tested with the short ball in the practice game.

Given all of these things it was mind boggling dat we wud bat first on winning de toss.

In reply to Maispwi

Oh, I'm sorry. I thought when you mentioned grey skies you were specifically talking about the ball swinging more in those conditions