West Indies captain Darren Sammy feels his team is much better than its performance suggests.
“Credit must go to India the way it used the old ball, especially, debutant Mohammad Shami. He got the ball reversing quite well and our batsmen were not patient enough to tackle him,” he conceded at the post-match press conference here on Friday.
“It is about being mentally strong enough when things are not going our away. We had India 80-something for five and R. Ashwin and Rohit (Sharma) grafted for runs. They weathered the storm. I remember Rohit, when he was on 76, went down the wicket for the first time and hit our spinner Shane Shillingford for a six.
“This shows a lot of application. Keeping the ball along the ground until the opportune moment, not giving the opposition a sniff. That is why it is Test cricket — being patient and batting it out for your team,” Sammy elaborated.
All praise for Shami
Ashwin was all praise for Mohammad Shami for his five-wicket haul. “I thought he bowled really well. He bowled with some good pace,” he said.
Ashwin said he was very happy for Rohit. This his Test debut ... and I just went out there and thought if he has a good day and I could stick with him, we could get a partnership going. We enjoyed our time out together. It is very important to communicate with each other and we had a great time,” he said.
On achieving victory on the third day, Ashwin said, “Honestly, we did not think the West Indies was going to fold up today. Then it just opened up and Shami bowled a brilliant spell and it came to a close. The last time we thought we would win on the third day, the West Indies pulled us to the fifth day,” he said.
