Following his team’s humiliating 419-run defeat to Australia in the second and final Test in Adelaide on Saturday night, West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite has lamented his team’s lack of fight.
Already trailing 1-0 in the series after going down by 164 runs to the home side in the lop-sided first Test, at Perth the West Indies once again found themselves behind the eight-ball on Saturday night (Caribbean time).
Their bowlers proved ineffective as Australia declared their first innings at 511-7. Their bowlers then dismissed the West Indies for 214.
Batting a second time after deciding against imposing a follow-on, Australia raced to 199-6 before declaring and then reducing the West Indies to 38-4 to be in complete command heading into the fourth day of the Test.
The hosts quickly completed the victory as the tourists capitulated to 77 all out to lose the two-Test series 2-0.
Brathwaite, the only batter to score a century for the West Indies during the series, said the team failed to put up much resistance.
“It was very disappointing. The first game, we fought to day five which was a decent effort. Coming here we didn't show any fight at all," said Brathwaite who had scores of 19 and three in the match.
"Obviously Australia bowled well but we didn't fight. The pink ball is always different, under lights is always tough. Bad days happen and bad games. This was a bad game for sure, but it's not the end of the world, we have a lot of Test cricket to play next year so we have to look ahead."
The Barbadian batter reserved praise for debutant Tagenarine Chanderpaul, who was one of the few bright spots in an overwhelmingly disastrous series. The 26-year-old son of West Indies great Shivnarine Chanderpaul had scores of 50, 45, 47 and 17 during the series to be the leading run scorer along with Brathwaite.
"It showed that he's tough," Brathwaite said. "You've got Mitchell Starc coming in at 90mph and you see a guy fighting like that, says a lot about his character. I thought he had a good start to his career and can see him really blossoming to have a superb career for West Indies."