West Indies' cricket manager, David Moore. - AP LEEDS, England (CMC):
West Indies coach David Moore expressed disappointment yesterday over his team's huge loss inside four days in the second cricket Test against England at Headingley.
It was their heaviest ever loss in Test cricket as the Caribbean side failed to push the game into a fifth day even though the entire third day was rained out. England won by an innings and 283 runs.
"It was ugly in the end, it looked like a pretty meek surrender," Moore told reporters after the game.
Rapped batsmen
Moore, who took over as coach for the tour after his Australian colleague Bennett King resigned after the World Cup, rapped the batsmen for failure to apply themselves and play longer innings.
"It gets to a point where they sometimes don't actually realise we've got to play for five days. They need to be aware that five-day cricket with X number of overs per day is something that they need to bat the whole way through," Moore said. "We saw England do it and we couldn't do it twice, so it's important to be able to occupy the crease, that's just basic cricket."
Following on 424 runs behind on first innings, the Windies were dismissed for 141 in their second innings about 15 minutes after the rescheduled tea break. The victory gave England a 1-0 lead in the four-Test series. Dwayne Bravo hit the top score of 52 off 74 balls and Runako Morton made 25 in a 63-run sixth-wicket stand, but no other West Indies batsman passed 20.
"There was some encouragement in the middle. Bravo and Morton were going well and unfortunately Morton fell for the three-cardtrick and got out and then it was a pretty quick exit after that. It was a bit disappointing in the end," said Moore.
Sarwan out
West Indies were without key batsmen Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul for the game. Captain Sarwan suffered a shoulder injury while fielding and Chanderpaul had been ruled out before the game with a knee injury.
Sarwan's withdrawal was a huge blow to the side but Moore, responding to questions about whether "heads and confidence dropped" after Sarwan's misfortune, said the team should not have been shattered by the captain's injury.
"I would hope not. That's profes-sional cricket, you are dealt cards and you do as well as you can. (Sarwan's injury) leaves a big hole in our batting. We can't allow anything to get in our way, it doesn't do what we are trying to achieve any good by dropping confidence," Moore said.
Moore also rejected the notion that the lopsided result is a reflection of where the team is at present.
