ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Patience and straight bowling will be key for West Indies President’s XI as they head into day two of their four-day tour match against England, off-spinner Bryan Charles said after impressing on day opening day here.
Speaking after taking three of the four wickets to fall on day one of the warm-up match that precedes the Apex series, Charles said the bowlers will have to exercise patience on the batting-friendly wicket at Coolidge Cricket Ground.
“I learned that patience is always a key virtue when bowling to better batsmen because they won’t make as many mistakes as the lower order batsmen.
“It was a pretty batting-friendly wicket….The wicket was really pretty flat. The bowlers have to put in their hard work on the wicket. I think we were bowling a little too wide in the beginning and I think straight is really the plan for them so we’ll work on that tomorrow,” he said, adding that the plan was for the pacers to start the bowling with the plan to “bowl a little faster and a little straighter to them, not giving them any arms because they are guys who like to hit the ball.”
An impressive Charles took the scalps of openers Alex Lees and Zak Crawley as well as England captain Joe Root, to end with three for 88 from 30 overs.
He admitted having difficulty finding his momentum before finding his stride and getting Crawley’s wicket.
“At first I was a bit nervous, I was struggling my first couple of overs to get my line but that definitely brought back my confidence,” Charles said.
Recounting how he claimed Stokes’ scalp, the off-spinner said: “I think he was coming at me a lot, he was chipping a lot to throw me off my line but I just stuck to it, bowled a little bit fast at him and eventually got him next to slip.”
Opting to bat first, England ended the day on 251 for four, with England captain Joe Root being the other wicket to fall when he was spectacularly yorked by fast bowler Sherman Lewis.