KHULNA – Captain Darren Sammy has swatted away suggestions Bangladesh were walkovers in the two-Test series which West Indies won convincingly yesterday.
Though both matches went the distance, Bangladesh’s batting suffered final day collapses.
Sammy said Bangladesh had been competitive in the series, pointing out that his bowlers did not have straightforward tasks.
“We had to work for most of our wickets and the pitches were really good for batting,” he said.
“We stuck to our plans for most of the time. In the first innings in Dhaka, our bowlers didn’t hit the areas. From the second innings and both innings in this Test, we bowled much better.”
He added: “The Bangladeshis, like us, are naturally aggressive . . . but our batsmen were more patient and let the bowlers come to them, not try to go searching for runs. Once you applied yourself on these pitches, you were bound to get runs.
“We have a lot of respect for the Bangladesh players but we always believed that we could come here and achieve our goal of winning the two Tests, so we are just happy to have accomplished this.”
Bangladesh pushed West Indies in both Tests but lacked the killer instinct in their batting when it mattered most.
West Indies have now won four Tests on the trot dating back to the clean sweep against New Zealand in July/August, and Sammy said the settled nature of the squad was playing a role in this success.
“The guys in this team played against New Zealand and were in England, with Chris Gayle returning to the team, so it’s a more settled squad, just like our Twenty20 team is quite settled; so is our One-day International team,” he pointed out.“The more we play together on the cricket field, the more we know about each other.” (CMC)
