Before the second Test against England, West Indies faced a spate of criticism with their legendary bowler Curtly Ambrose leading the charge after Jason Holder & Co. were thrashed by England in the series-opener at Edgbaston.
During an interview with the Daily Mail, Ambrose had described the Edgbaston performance as “embarrassing” and lacking in pride.
Well, the criticism seems to have done a world of good for the visitors, as they came up with one of their best batting performances in recent times on day two of the ongoing second Test at Headingley. After bowling out England for just 258 and finishing the opening day on 19 for one, West Indies were in a spot of bother in the first hour of second day’s play, as James Anderson put the hosts on top by claiming two quick wickets to leave the tourists reeling at 35 for three.
Considering West Indies’ recent form and their performance at Edgbaston where England took 19 wickets inside a day to win the match by an innings and 209 runs, it was quite easy then to foresee another collapse.
However, Kraigg Brathwaite and Shai Hope led-West Indies’ fight back with utmost aplomb, scoring brilliant centuries, as the visitors secured a first-innings lead. West Indies were 329 for five at stumps, 71 runs ahead of England’s 258.
The duo sent the English bowlers on a leather hunt, as they added 246 runs for the fourth wicket before Brathwaite was cleaned up by Stuart Broad for 134. Hope, who scored his maiden Test ton, remained unbeaten on 147 not out and would be keen to help his team take a good first innings lead.
Speaking after the day’s play, Hope lauded his team’s fightback before stating that the tourists want to put England under pressure by taking a big first innings lead.
“The key word for us was fight,” Hope told Sky Sports. “We are here to play cricket, not let people run over us with bat or ball. We now want to get the lead as big as possible and put England under pressure.”
However, prior to the knock in the ongoing match, Hope averaged less than 20 from the 11 Tests played so far. He had missed his first century against Pakistan in Barbados when he made 90 in the second innings of his team’s win but did not repeat the mistake and was delighted to get the monkey off his back.
“I am pleased to get that monkey off my back,” he said. “I have played a few games so to get that hundred was a relief. You do feel pressure, as a professional sportsman you want to perform to your optimum.”
When asked about his game plan, Hope said: “I just tried to bat long. We knew the ball was going to swing and you have to give the bowlers credit and respect the good balls. We just kept reminding ourselves what the plan was and stuck to the basics.”
Brathwaite, who struck his sixth Test century, admitted that the ball was causing troubles for the batsmen.
“The ball did a lot most of the day, and we didn’t want to bring a new batsman in,” he told Sky Sports. “We wanted to fight it out and once we could put away the bad balls that was the key. When you get momentum it helps and we just kept believing in ourselves, something we have been talking about.”
The opening batsman also admitted that he had made some technical adjustments to his game since the match at Edgbaston.
“I have been working on playing straighter,” Brathwaite said. “Sometimes my head can go to the off-side, so I wanted to stay still at the point of delivery and get my weight into the ball. It’s something I will continue to work on as facing the new ball is not easy.”