da supremo： West Indian captain Carl Hooper admitted that his side had been beaten fairand square by Sri Lanka in Galle but promised that the team will come outfighting in the second Test starting on Wednesday
Charlie Austin17-Nov-2001West Indian captain Carl Hooper admitted that his side had been beaten fairand square by Sri Lanka in Galle but promised that the team will come outfighting in the second Test starting on Wednesday.The tourists lost to Sri Lanka by 10 wickets on Saturday despite havingscored 448 in their first innings.”We didn’t play as we could have done, but I don’t think we were disgracedin any way,” he said. “We are disappointed we lost but we’ll come outfighting again in the second Test.””We knew it was going to be tough. They have a world-class spinner inMuttiah Muralitharan and he is going to put you under pressure.”I was very hopeful when I saw the way Sarwan and Ganga played in the firsthour. They were fairly comfortable it was unfortunate to lose Ganga and thenSarwan immediately afterwards.”West Indies were cruising at one stage on 423 for four, but following thedismissal of Brian Lara, they capitulated, losing their remaining fivewickets for just 23 runs. Sri Lanka then rattled up 590 to set themselves upfor victory on the final day.”When we were 423 for four we should have made 550,” said Hooper. “Weallowed them back into the game and then bowled too short and wide on thefirst day. As a result they got away.”We made a big effort in trying to pull them back on the third and fourthday, but we were obviously up against it.”Hooper defended the decision to play two spinners: “It was a dry wicket fromday one we knew it was going to turn. Ramnarine bowled well, whilstMcGarrell didn’t bowl as well as he should have, but if we had to do it allagain we would picked two spinners.”Muttiah Muralitharan picked up 11-169 in the match, the third time he hastaken ten wickets in consecutive Tests.”When you play against a world class bowler like Muralitharan, it’sdifficult to have a plan,” he said. “It’s not as if he has one particularstrength. He bowls virtually everything: he’s got a straighter ball, aflighted ball and a flat ball, so, basically, you’ve got to play what yousee.”We will now have a day off, before coming and working in the nets again. Wewill discuss where we went wrong and how we can tackle them in the secondtest.”