India vs West Indies 2016: Kraigg Brathwaite feels India's disciplined bowling is reason for Windies' batting failure

The West Indies opener praised the Indian fast bowlers for executing their plans to perfection

West Indies opener Kraigg Brathwaite feels disciplined bowling from Team India, especially the faster bowlers, rather than poor batting from the hosts was to blame for the failure of his side to avoid the follow-on in the first Test currently underway at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua. Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami both picked up four wickets each as the hosts were dismissed for 243 in the first innings, 323 runs short of India’s total. 

Brathwaite, who made 74 in the first innings before failing to put up much resistance in the second innings becoming Ishant Sharma’s maiden victim of the match in the very first over, praised the opposition for sticking to a good plan and executing it to perfection. 

"I think I haven't seen any bowlers bowl so well in the early stage of the innings," Brathwaite said. "They bowled with a lot of discipline. They also set attacking fields and really backed it up with good disciplined bowling."

Speaking at the end of the third day’s play, Indian fast bowler Umesh Yadav had also praised his team’s bowling unit for putting the pressure on the opposition batsmen by not gifting easy runs and felt that was the reason the visitors was able to skittle out the opposition for a low score. Brathwaite agrees though he feels the West Indies batsmen could have perhaps fared a little better.

"It's a bit of both," he said when asked whether West Indies' situation was more a reflection of poor batting or good bowling from India. "As a batsman, you have to know when you have to curb your aggression and defend, or when to attack. I think it's all about individual batsmanship as a whole. It's about having confidence in what you do and building partnerships and bat throughout the third day."

Though Brathwaite himself will have no more role to play with the bat in this Test, he backed his fellow batsmen to put on a much better showing in the second innings. 

"We had just a bad day," he said. "We have some really good batsmen. Today it didn't go well but tomorrow we should come back and bat really well and put some runs on the board."

According to the 23-year-old, the surface is still very much good for batting and expects the same conditions to prevail for the remainder of the match as well.

"Little bit of grass. I don't think it will crack up. The bounce is still good and we have to come tomorrow and see if it continues or if it gets low," Brathwaite said.