ST JOHN’S, An­tigua — West In­dies head coach An­dre Co­ley laud­ed his play­ers fol­low­ing a dom­i­nant per­for­mance against Bangladesh in An­tigua which saw the home side claim an em­phat­ic 201-run vic­to­ry in the first Test.

Co­ley com­mend­ed his play­ers for their ef­forts, par­tic­u­lar­ly high­light­ing the con­tri­bu­tions of the fast-bowl­ing unit.

“The bowlers were out­stand­ing. They showed great dis­ci­pline and con­trol through­out the match, ex­ploit­ing the con­di­tions per­fect­ly. It’s al­ways pleas­ing to see the fast-bowl­ing group work­ing to­geth­er and cre­at­ing pres­sure as a unit. They’ve set the tone for what we want to achieve in this se­ries.”

Led by fiery spells from Alzarri Joseph and Ke­mar Roach, the West In­dies pace at­tack dis­man­tled the Bangladeshi bat­ting line­up in both in­nings. Joseph’s raw pace and Roach’s pin­point ac­cu­ra­cy proved too much for the vis­i­tors, who strug­gled to cope with the re­lent­less on­slaught. The duo, along with Jay­den Seales shared cru­cial wick­ets, and Co­ley be­lieves the right de­ci­sion was made to play an all-pace at­tack.

“I am more spe­cif­ic about the role of each bowler. Ke­mar is asked to set the tone with Jay­den emerg­ing as a new ball bowler. Alzarri gives us that ag­gres­sion first change and Shamar is al­so emerg­ing.”

In the bat­ting de­part­ment, Justin Greaves was one of the stand­out per­form­ers. Com­ing in­to the side with a rich vein of form from the Su­per 50 cup, the Bar­ba­di­an went on to score his maid­en Test cen­tu­ry. His un­beat­en knock was in­stru­men­tal in giv­ing the West In­dies a com­mand­ing first-in­nings lead. The West In­dies al­so got use­ful half-cen­tu­ry con­tri­bu­tions from open­er Mikyle Louis and Justin Athanaze.

“Justin’s (Athanaze) in­nings was ex­cep­tion­al. He played with a lot of ma­tu­ri­ty and com­po­sure, which is ex­act­ly what we need­ed. His role is cru­cial at num­ber six where he bats and can swing the ball when he bowls. Per­for­mances like that in­spire the en­tire team and show the depth we’re build­ing.”

While cap­tain Kraigg Brath­waite had a qui­et match with the bat with scores of four and 23, Co­ley ex­pressed con­fi­dence in his skip­per’s abil­i­ty to bounce back. Brath­waite, who has been a cor­ner­stone of the team’s suc­cess in re­cent years, has strug­gled for con­sis­ten­cy of late, but Co­ley dis­missed any con­cerns.

“Kraigg is a proven per­former and a leader. Every play­er goes through patch­es where runs don’t come as eas­i­ly, but I have no doubt he will find his form soon. He wants to do well and it is for us to give him the sup­port and en­sure he main­tains his shape.”

The vic­to­ry in An­tigua al­so boosts the West In­dies’ as­pi­ra­tions in the ICC World Test Cham­pi­onship. With cru­cial points still up for grabs, Co­ley be­lieves his side can achieve their tar­gets for the com­pe­ti­tion.

“The win is im­por­tant, but we al­so have some long-term goals. We are still in a World Test Cham­pi­onship and there are a cou­ple of goals we have in mind and those goals are still at­tain­able.”

The West In­dies will look to car­ry their form in­to the sec­ond Test which bowls off on Sat­ur­day at Sabi­na Park in Kingston, Ja­maica.

CMC