Coach King savours first West Indies victory

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados: While Bennett King was cherishing his first win in five Tests as West Indies team coach, his opposite number Bob Woolmer is lamenting what he terms ‘‘spineless’’ batting by Pakistan in the first Digicel Test at Kensington Oval. King showered praises on captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul and his predecessor Brian Lara, who both hit centuries as West Indies triumphed by 276 runs on Sunday with more than a day-and-a-half to spare. Lara raced to 130 in the first innings to record his 29th Test hundred while Chanderpaul’s unbeaten 153 in the second was his 14th and followed a knock of 92 in the first.

“I think Brian has the ability to take games away from people and he did that in the first innings and even in the second innings when he came out, we were under the pump a little bit, and his 48 I think actually put them on the back foot, and Shivi capitalises on those things and works well with Brian. I thought Shivi played really well,” King said. Yet, Australian King conceded that the absence of Inzamam-ul-Haq, the appointed Pakistan captain, who was serving a one-match ban for over appealing, and fellow experienced batsman Yousuf Youhana, who returned home at the start of the match because of illness to his father, were crucial factors in the game.

“It was a bonus for us that two world-class players were not in their side. We are not under any illusions. They could be back for the next Test match, which strengthens their batting. “You can only play with what’s in front of you and we just have to quickly re-arrange and make our plans for the new batters coming in and focus on them,” King said. Woolmer, a former England batsman, pointed to inconsistency in the Pakistan Test side. “Besides Bangalore and one or two others, we haven’t played Test cricket very well. We certainly didn’t bat in the first innings as we needed to. “I thought we bowled fairly well in the first innings. Lara played brilliantly but I thought in our first innings, you can’t get bowled out for 144.

It was ridiculous and on a good pitch, too.”  Like King, Woolmer felt that the absence of Inzamam and Youhana set back Pakistan. “Obviously not having Inzamam and Yousuf would have made a little bit of a difference but I thought we were spineless on the particular day with our batting and certainly something we will regret in the next few days. “It’s just that they just got themselves out very stupidly. We have seen no spirit, no fight at the crease, which is surprising really,” he said. “But don’t take credit away from the West Indies. They were under the crush and they really came out here and played very well. Fidel Edwards bowled very quickly and Brian Lara was absolutely magnificent as was Chanderpaul. “They were a better side than us over the four days of the Test which lasted,” Woolmer said.