England captain Joe Root appeals© AFP
Former West Indies all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite has accused Joe Root of being “disrespectful” after the England skipper waited until the last five balls to concede the draw on day 5 of the opening Test. Chasing an improbable 286 to win, West Indies were reduced to 67 for four at the start of last session but the duo of Nkrumah Bonner (38 off 138) and Jason Holder (37 off 101) batted for a combined 239 deliveries, adding 80 off 35 overs to deny England a win.
The visitors showed no desire to call it early, despite the day’s remaining overs dwindling with the two holding fort.
“If I were a senior player in the West Indies dressing room, I would have found it a bit disrespectful that in the last hour, with two set batsmen playing as they were and the pitch offering nothing, England still felt they could get six wickets, going all the way down to five balls left,” Brathwaite said on BT Sport.
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“Would England have done that if it were an Ashes Test? Would they have done that against India, New Zealand, Pakistan? I think the answer is no, so why have they done it against us? “If West Indies need any sort of steely determination added, I think that passage of play should have given them that. They should be thinking ‘we have two Tests now to prove we are better than England think we are’.” The second Test between the two sides begins at Bridgetown on March 16.
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