‘The batting effort in the first innings just wasn’t good enough’ – Kraigg Brathwaite reflects on loss in second Test against South Africa

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3 months ago

‘The batting effort in the first innings just wasn’t good enough’ – Kraigg Brathwaite reflects on loss in second Test against South Africa

Kraigg Brathwaite. (Source – Twitter/X)

The second Test of the series between the West Indies and South Africa could be well and truly considered as a low-scoring thriller, especially bearing in mind how the first game played out being marred by rain. In the end, it was the Proteas who took the cake with the home team failing to chase 263 as they got shot out 40 runs shy of their target, that too with more than two entire days in the bank.

West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite reflected on the game and despite being pleased by the fact that they managed to bowl the visitors out for 160 in the first innigs, somewhat rued the fact that they couldn’t with the score being lesser than that, as Dane Piedt and Nandre Burger put on 63 for the last wicket.

“Yeah, if you look at it, obviously it was quite big. But bowling them out for 160, I was happy. That partnership for them was, was good. You know, it’s cricket where partnerships do happen. So, I won’t really stress on that too much,” stated Brathwaite, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

However, it was Brathwaite who expressed regret on the score his team ended up with in their first innings, as he felt that obtaining a lead was the bare minimum which should have been achieved by the batting unit. He also alluded to the batting effort in the first innings being one of the primary factors which caused the hosts to fall short at the end.

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“But, what I would say is our first innings total needed to be bigger. We needed to get a lead from it. I think that was very important. You can never complain about the bowlers’ effort to bowl them out for 160. The batting effort in the first innings just wasn’t good enough. We had to fight back into the game. In the end, we fell short,” mentioned Brathwaite.

We just got to keep believing: Brathwaite

After being done ruminating on the what-ifs, Brathwaite went on to review the various positives he felt emerged from their recent expeditions in the red-ball format.

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“As I said, the future is very bright for our fast bowling unit, and we’ve still got Kemar Roach, with loads of experience on it. You know, he still has a lot of Test matches left in him. So it’s very exciting. But I must say, I’m very excited about the batting unit. I really think the lineup we have, can do the job. And obviously, I’ve been asking for more Test matches. We had five on the back. And yes, we didn’t come out with guys averaging above 50. So, I am excited for the fast bowlers, but I really believe that this top five can do a good job for the West Indies. So, we just got to keep believing,” added Brathwaite.