It Was A Total Team Effort – Bravo

The West Indies clawed their way back into the game after England declared at 553/5 at the start of day 3 at Lords. After crumbling to 175/5 the visitors, thanks to resistance and aggression from Bravo, Ramdin and Chanderpaul, progressed on to 363/7 by the close of play.

Below are remarks from Dwayne Bravo, who spoke to the press after the game.

LONDON, United Kingdom – West Indies all rounder Dwayne Bravo spoke with the media after the third day's play of the first Test match against England at Lord's. Following are excerpts from his responses to various issues raised by journalists.

On the manner in which he got out:

I'm very disappointed. I saw the fielder outside there and I said myself that I'm not going to play the shot but I think instinct and the moment took me there. I am disappointed, it is something I have to learn from, it's a mistake that I made and I have to work on it now. It's instinct, I saw a short delivery and I thought I'm going to hit it away for four but the bad thing I do is that I hit the ball in the air and once you hit the ball in the air you have a chance of getting out. I paid for it and I have to learn from it now.

On Harmison not having a particularly good day:

I went out there and played my game. I don't play bowlers by name or anything like that. I see Harmison having a bad game, he was not controlling the ball as well and he didn't have good rhythm but we all know Steve Harmison is a world class bowler it's just it was that the ball was not coming out his hand the way he wanted. Tomorrow is a different day and Harmison could be the one to change things around for England. We know at times he could be bad and at other times he could be just as good but we know that he has a problem spraying the ball and we were all conscious of that. When we saw him starting we said Harmy is having a bad day and we said whenever he bowls the ball in the right areas we don't go after him. We ensured that we put away the loose deliveries and keep him on the backfoot.

On his plan to be positive to Monty Panesar:

It was a game plan I developed on my own. Batting at number 7 gave me the opportunity to sit down and see what the bowlers were doing. Seeing three of our batsmen fall to Monty the same way I decided to be more positive to him and try to use my bat as much as possible. Any spinner, no matter how good they are, do not like any batsman using their feet and going over the top and being positive. I realized that I got on top of Monty when I saw one of the bat pad removed and the field started to spread. I was on top and I continued to dominate him and ensured that he did not get on top of me.

On whether the Windies feel they are in the game:

We are in the game. England scoring 553, they are in charge of the game. They had to know when to declare and how much time they would need to bowl us out twice. When we got the news this morning that we would be batting we said our first goal was to get past the follow on to ensure that England bats again. That's what we did. We knew as West Indian players once we batted the whole day and play our natural game we were going to score runs and we were going to score freely and that's what we did today. All of us got starts but unfortunately none of us carried on to get triple figures but Shivnarine Chanderpaul is still there and the lower order batsmen are there to support Shiv.

On how he sees the pitch disintegrating over the next two days:

I don't see much difference. England pitches do not crack up as much as you would see back in the West Indies. It will get slower but with the conditions changing the ball could start to move around a lot more.

On how the team approached the innings:

It was a total team effort. England has a good attack on paper but we knew once we played well we could get past the follow on. It was a total team effort from all the batsmen. We knew coming into the first Test we did not have much behind us but the guys came back and fought very well. The batting effort is coming along, the team spirit is good and everyone is cheering. Everyone is contributing and that is the most important thing.