GROS ISLET, St Lucia, CMC – Head coach Hendy Springer has praised West Indies A for their “quality and commonsense” approach after they crushed India A by ten wickets in the final unofficial “Test” here Tuesday to win the three-match series 2-1.
Springer, a former assistant coach of the senior team, also praised his bowlers for their discipline in limiting a strong Indian batting unit to under 300 on each occasion they batted.
“I am very, very happy. We are all very happy because we can now celebrate our achievements,” Springer beamed.
“The players can get the rewards from their efforts and the people who support West Indies cricket also have something to celebrate. We did a number of good things in the last three weeks, and one very good thing was winning.
“If you look at where we came from, before the first match a lot people put their money on India A to beat us, but we played with quality and commonsense to win two matches by significant margins. We lost by two wickets in the first match but we saw the signs of progress and we progressed nicely.”
West Indies A came close in the first Test in Bridgetown before going down by two wickets at Kensington Oval but hit back strongly in the second “Test” at Arnos Vale in St Vincent, hammering the Indians by 125 runs early on the final morning.
The hosts repeated the scenario at the Beausejour Cricket Stadium last weekend, controlling the game from the outset before using a telling bowling effort on Monday’s penultimate day to set up an easy victory before lunch on the final day.
“The bowlers were brilliant throughout the entire series and worked overtime for us. India has a very strong batting line-up and they failed to reach 300 runs in six innings, a sign that we were well prepared and very disciplined as a bowling group,” said Springer, who has been in charge of the side for the last three years. “(Delorn) Johnson got us an early breakthrough in every innings and that put pressure on the other batsmen. He was always ‘at them’ with the new ball and the old ball and asked questions of them every time.
“(Jonathan) Carter was a revelation. He is a middle-order batsman and part-time wicketkeeper who was asked to do a job with the ball and he did it manfully. His 10 wickets were a huge bonus.”
Johnson, the big Windward Islands left-arm seamer who was at the centre of both wins in the series, was the leading wicket-taker with 17 wickets.
Carter grabbed a five-wicket haul in the Barbados “Test” with his brisk medium pace and also took three wickets in the first innings here to held undermine India.
The tour moves to Trinidad and Tobago where the two teams clash in a Twenty20 doubleheader on Saturday and Sunday at Queen’s Park Oval.
