TUESDAY, MARCH 25 – PROVIDENCE, GUYANA – West Indies head coach John Dyson spoke with the media shortly after the end of the fourth day’s play in the First Digicel Test at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence. Following the match summary below, are excerpts from his responses to various issues raised with him by the journalists.

Match Summary at the End of Day 4: Sri Lanka 476/8d & 240/7d   /  West Indies 280 & 96/1 (23.0 ov) chasing 437 for victory. In chasing the mammoth total, Captain Chris Gayle demoted himself from the opening spot and promoted Dwayne Bravo who ended the day on 46 not out including 6 fours and 1 six. Sarwan also remained unbeaten on 34 at the end of day four. Of note, Sulieman Benn the slow left-arm orthodox spinner, on test debut for West Indies, captured 3 for 59 from 13 overs in Sri Lanka's second innings.

EXCERPTS FROM JOHN DYSON PRESS CONFERENCE

On whether the West Indies will go after victory on the final day:

We will wait and see what happens tomorrow morning and see how things pan out. History says that it is possible to get a total like that and it has been done in the West Indies before so you never put that totally out of the question. I think all teams these days look to win wherever possible and if the opportunity to win comes along then we will look to take it.

On the batting of Dwayne Bravo and Ramnaresh Sarwan in the last hour on Day Four:

They handled the last session very very well. Obviously they are under a bit of pressure in that final session. Whether it is this game or any other game, you get to the last hour of the day and there is always a bit of pressure on you to survive the day and they batted very well.

On an overall assessment of the team’s performance in the First Digicel Test:

We are disappointed with the way we fielded in the Sri Lankan first innings. Not all of the fielding, we missed a few chances and catches and we know how important it is to hang on to absolutely everything, even all the half chances. So we’re disappointed that we missed a few chances in they field. I think the bowlers worked very very hard on what could only be described as a batting paradise. There was nothing in it for any bowler. It was just batting paradise. I was pleased with the way the guys stuck with the task, I was pleased with the ground fielding. Batting in the first innings I think the guys would admit that they are a little disappointed that sometimes they got themselves out rather than getting out to a really good ball and they are going to work hard in this innings to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

On the decision to not open the batting with captain Chris Gayle:

Chris felt that it was a good chance to just have a change in this innings. He feels that Bravo is a very positive player, also the thought of having a left hand/right hand opening combination in this innings was something we were thinking about. Chris discussed it with me and the vice captain and we said if you think that is the way to go we’ll support your decision and it turned out to be a very good decision from Chris.

On whether the team had a run target in mind for the end of the day’s play:

There was no run target, it was a matter of playing each ball as it came.

On whether the aggression from West Indies was mere spontaneity:

I’d say it was natural play from Dwayne Bravo.

On what stage in the morning session the team will know how to approach the rest of the day:

It’s hard to say, you don’t know how the morning is going to pan out. Who knows Bravo could continue exactly in the vein he started off in and peel off a hundred in the first session. Wouldn’t that be great to watch?

On whether the team will have a definitive approach to adopt at lunch:

Not definitive thoughts, we’ll have a better idea of how the rest of the day will shape up. You’ve got to play each ball on its merits and tomorrow there is a minimum of 540 balls so there is a long time tomorrow to get to the point where you make (a decision) that this is what we are ultimately going to do.

On debutant spinner Sulieman Benn:

I said before the match that it is good that we have frontline spinners in the squad because it gives us that option that when you get a wicket that might actually be kind to spinners to actually play one. We found in South Africa that we didn’t have that spin option, we were asking the pace bowlers and as you know all of our pace bowlers are aggressive pace bowlers. Bravo can tie an end down very well but the other bowlers are very aggressive in their approach to taking wickets and it’s difficult to then ask them when the wicket isn’t conducive to pace to come on and do a similar job. The thought for the spinner was that he could bowl long spells if needed, he could also be in a situation where if he bowls well enough he could take wickets and it gives us an overall better balance on a wicket isn’t suited to pace. In assessing his performance in this match you have got to say that the wicket has been a batsman’s paradise. It didn’t help the pace bowlers and it didn’t help the spinners and I thought he bowled very very well for his first Test match. He came in, maintained a good line, a good length, he didn’t give away very many easy runs at all and I was really pleased. I felt sorry for him that he didn’t take a wicket (in the first innings) albeit there was one opportunity missed form his bowling and I was pleased that he has come out there again and bowled pretty well. He was under a bit of pressure today as well. We knew that the Sri Lankans may just be going after him but he handled that very well and on top of all that he showed when he batted that he can also handle the bat.

On what will be said at the team talk in the evening:

I’m not one to have a team talk every night. At the end of a day’s play it is time for the players to do their cool downs, let their emotions cool down as well and reflect on what’s happened in the day’s play so tomorrow morning we will have a chat about what might happen throughout the day and the instructions will be as always “you must play every ball on it’s merit”. If you get a bad ball put it away, if you get a good ball, defend.|

On the two camps differing in views on the pitch (WI saying it is a batting paradise while Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene saying it is difficult to bat on)

If you ask any of the batsman, you expect a Test wicket in the first session of the first day you expect the Test wicket to give a pace bowler, if he is a genuine pace bowler and if he is prepared to run in and bowl fast, if he bowls well you expect him to get some help. I don’t think the wicket gave the fast bowlers any help. You then expect the wicket to lose some of those pace and become a batting paradise where the ball comes on to the bat and scoring runs for a day and a half is at the best time and then you expect it to start and turn. The ball gets older and as the game gets older and the wicket becomes more worn you expect it to turn even more and more. We have seen in the lead up game to this match and in this match that it might not be Mahela’s ideal pace even though he got a hundred but it has been pretty damn good to bat on.

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