While he struggled to come to terms with his last over dismissal in the dressing room, generous praise flowed for Shivnarine Chanderpaul from Australian coach Mickey Arthur and teammate Darren Bravo.
Chanderpaul, playing in his 140th Test match, fell for 69, lbw by way of the Decision Review System to Australian captain Michael Clarke on the fourth day of the final match of the Digicel series at Windsor Park on Thursday.
But when he had got to 14, he became the tenth man in history to score 10,000 runs and the second West Indian after Brian Lara (11,953).
The magnitude of the achievement and the quality of the performer was not lost on Arthur.
“Shiv’s been outstanding all series,” he told the media. “He’s been quite brilliant really. He’s shown why he’s got 10,000 runs in Test cricket, very uncomplicated technique even though it looks a little but weird on the eye.”
Arthur, previously coach of South Africa has come by his appreciation of the veteran left-hander over many years of observation in the opposition dressing room.
“I saw Shiv first when he was very young,” he said. “He toured South Africa (1998) and looked a very, very good player then.
“In my last series that I had with South Africa as coach against the West Indies, I think Shiv got a hundred in every first innings, so he was well on track in this series with a hundred in Barbados, 94 in Trinidad and runs again here.
“I’ve just seen so much of him and can’t help but admire the application and the desire to keep scoring runs. You’ve got to marvel at that.”
Bravo has had an even closer view of the “Tiger.”
He shared a century stand last nearly three hours with the man who is nearly 14 years his senior.
“Shiv is someone I enjoy batting with each and every time,” Bravo said.
“When I’m batting with Shiv, he’s always there encouraging me, telling me to play each ball on its merit and try to rotate the strike as much as possible…Batting with Shiv gives me confidence.”
And Bravo said it is easy for the West Indies young brigade to talk cricket with their senior pro.
“The good thing about it is that whenever you go to Shiv and ask him for advice, he’s willing (to talk) each and every time. We are very fortunate to have him in our team at this point in time.”
And Bravo, whose return of one half century in the series was “disappointing” to him, appreciates there is much to learn from the methods of the 10,000 man, such as the way he practices.
“He puts his heart and soul into everything he does in practice,” Bravo said. “Shiv is someone who would bat first at practice and would be the last one to leave the nets. His concentration level is very good and it’s just a matter of learning from him as much as possible.”
And Bravo reckoned he has time to pick Chanderpaul’s brain since, “he’s going to be here for a very long time still. He’s scoring a lot of runs (and) that makes it much better for us.”
