Ramdin urges greater intensity

Nottingham— Denesh Ramdin said the confidence in the West Indies team remained high and they will be aiming to keep the series alive, when the second Test against England opens tomorrow at Trent Bridge. The Windies wicketkeeper/batsman said the visitors strongly believed that they could rebound from a five-wicket defeat in the first Test, which ended two days ago at Lord’s, giving England a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. “Many people felt that we would have lost inside four days, but the guys showed character and fight,” said Ramdin yesterday. “If we had batted a bit better in the first innings, you never know what could have happened on the last day.”

 

 

He added: “It would be amazing for us to win a Test in England. For a team with so many young players, to be able to win a Test against the No.1 Test side, it would be fantastic. “We showed some fight against Australia [in our previous series] back home, but we’re in English conditions. We are in England’s backyard and it’s tough to beat them here, but there are beatable, once we bowl in the right areas, get wickets, and our batters put runs on the board.” Bright sunshine and warm temperatures greeted the visitors when they trained at the match venue on yesterday. Ramdin said he was looking forward to the players lifting their level of intensity and hoped the bowlers could again hit their straps.

 

 

“The weather looks fine up this side, so hopefully, the conditions would also favour our bowlers, and they can take pattern from England’s bowlers, bowl the right areas, challenge England’s batsmen, and put up a better fight here and we try to force a win,” he said. “I think it was a pretty good pitch at Lord’s and we just needed to bowl more consistently. The toss was important there and they won the toss and made use of the opportunity.” He said: “But we recognise that we could have one bad session and we could lose a Test match, so we need to be more consistent. “We may bat or bowl well in one session, and we need to come out again and be on our Ps and Qs again, but sometimes we take things for granted.”