DYSON - "TEAM MUST SHOW FIGHT TO AVOID DEFEAT"

Thursday 7^th May, 2009. West Indies coach, John Dyson, is keen for his side to put Thursday’s calamitous second day behind them and fight hard to avoid defeat over the next few days of the opening Test against England at Lord’s.

“Today hasn’t been a good day for us at all. But there’s still a few days left and we’ve just got to fight,” Dyson said after a day on which the West Indies lost 12 wickets to hand England a huge advantage.

“We have to, obviously, bat extremely well,” he admitted. “We may get a bit of help from the weather, with a bit of luck, but we won’t rely on that. We just have to bat well.”

Dyson refused to be too critical of his team’s batsmen despite totaling 152 in their first innings and slipping to 39 for two as they followed on.

“I think it was primarily good bowling,” he said. “You’ve got to admit that the England bowlers came out and bowled with pace. They bowled with intent and they bowled the right areas.”

Dyson admitted the catching on day one was a letdown but said he could not blame the preparation.

“We definitely let ourselves down in the field. It’s just one of those things in cricket,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how much you practice catching and what sort of drills you do to practice catching, guys still drop them in matches. It’s unfortunate, but it just happens.”

Dyson was delighted with the performance of pace spearhead Fidel Edwards, who grabbed six for 92 despite suffering from half of the six dropped chances on Wednesday.

“I thought Fidel bowled excellently. He bowled with pace. He bowled with some aggression. He put the balls in the right areas and he deserved the figures he got.”