(Reuters) – England captain Joe Root acknowledged that he might have declared earlier on the ultimate day of the drawn second take a look at against West Indies.
By leaving his considerably conservative declaration till lunch, he left his bowlers solely 65 overs on a docile pitch to gather the ten second-innings West Indies wickets wanted for victory.
The hosts had been by no means going to significantly chase the 282 runs they wanted to win, and possibly wouldn’t have gone for a considerably smaller margin both.
But Root in a publish match interview sounded as if he didn’t wish to give the hosts even a sniff of an opportunity.
“It’s at all times a tough one is not it … attempting to weigh that up,” he stated of the consistently altering mathematical calculation surrounding the declaration.
“Just with how small this floor is and the way sturdy the wind was, you do not wish to … give too many overs.
“To look again in hindsight, might we’ve got pulled out 10 overs earlier, would it not have made a lot distinction?”
He was talking after West Indies completed on 135 for 5, with captain Kraigg Brathwaite unbeaten on 56 along with his marathon first innings 160.
Despite a second straight draw within the sequence, leaving every little thing up for grabs within the ultimate take a look at in Grenada beginning on Thursday, Root took loads of encouragement from his workforce’s efficiency in a match the place they had been largely the higher workforce.
“It’s simply actually pleasing to see us make a considerable first innings whole for the primary time in a very long time,” he stated of their 507 for 9 declared rating.
“Hopefully the fellows have gained a variety of confidence from it and we will replicate it time and again and once more.”
Interim head coach Paul Collingwood added: “To play on pitches like that’s exhausting work. We’re getting nearer to that win.
“It wasn’t to be but when we proceed with that very same form of angle it will be simply across the nook.”
(Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina; Editing by Toby Davis)