Yet another test cricket series and it is the same tale of West Indies team who is struggling against the decent fast bowling attack of South Africa (visitors). West Indies boards, selectors, and the captain himself have been responsible for the series loss against South Africa by 2-0. In the four innings of two test matches, the home side scoreboard reads 97, 162, 149, and 165. There are just two half-centuries from the West Indies camp to define their passion to play test cricket. Straight after the loss, the captain of the losing side has tried to justify his strategy and plans throughout the series.
“As batsmen, we know we went wrong. We didn’t bat well. We are very sorry. The fans look forward to the West Indies doing well and we were disappointing.”
“Sometimes it’s not about winning but you still want to see the fight and we didn’t show the fans that fight. Myself included, we have to come back better and make the fans proud,” Brathwaite added.
While the winning head coach of South Africa has said it’s all the hard work that pays of for South Africa, “It’s not a relief. There’s been a lot of hard work that’s been done behind the scenes. We were working on quite a few technical things and upskilling our players. We understood the necessity of us performing for the Proteas badge and the guys pulled through and played as a strong team,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Boucher as saying.
“The new captain (Dean Elgar) asked a couple of questions about where we are and where we are going and where we want to be. Quite a few honest chats came out there as they do around a South African fire at night. The guys all really bought into a process that he wanted to align his reign with,” he added
“That’s where we all stood back and said we are either on the bus or not on the bus. Thankfully everyone decided they were on the bus. And it doesn’t only work when you are on the field. A lot of effort has to be put in behind closed doors in the way we train, the way we talk, the language, the confidence. That is probably where it started. At that fire.”
Mark Boucher has said the success of team is definitely the reasons of captain choices during the test match, Quinny been through a tough time of late. He came into this series without as many runs as he would have liked to but the way he has been hitting the balls in the nets and the way he has been off the field has been fantastic,” said Boucher.
“His chat around the change room is funny and lighthearted and Quinny in that space – it is always going to reflect on the way he plays on the field. The 141 he got the other day, this outfield is very slow, that could have been a 200. The 96 he got was worth 120-130. He was the x-factor in the whole series. I am very happy that Quinny is in a good space at the moment,” he added
