RUSSELL WAS BRILLIANT – STUART WILLIAMS Monday 7th November 2011
North Sound, Antigua – West Indies A Team Assistant Coach and former West Indies opening batsman Stuart Williams has hailed Andre Russell’s century as an innings of brilliance.
“It was a brilliant innings by Russell, he mixed aggression with defence, he ran well between the wickets and he built partnerships which brought us back into the game,” said the 42 year old who featured in 31 Tests and 57 One Day Internationals.
Russell made 128 out of a West Indies A total of 352 for 8 on day one of the opening Digicel ‘Test’ against Bangladesh A at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Grounds.
Williams also heaped praise on Danza Hyatt who fell eight runs short of a century.
“Hyatt’s innings shows his quality as a batsman who understands his role,” Williams remarked.
He was particularly impressed with how the batsmen responded when the West Indies A found themselves in trouble at 11 for 2 and 131 for 5.
“What we want them to do is play to their strengths but for them to do so in the context of the team plan and execute the details of that plan,” Williams
explained.
He said that while the execution was not perfect it was acceptable.
Barbadian all rounder Carlos Brathwaite who made 62 and put on 155 runs for the seventh wicket with Russell also came in for kudos from Williams.
“Carlos is not as explosive as Russell but he chose his spots and played within his limitations and played very well today,” Williams said.
He was confident that the opening batsmen – Kyle Corbin (0) and Rajendra Chandrika (9) – will rebound from their failures.
“Corbin and Chandrika have the ability and they could play and I’m certain they will come back, this is just one innings,” Williams said.
“The pitch was fresh, they need to respect the new ball a little bit more and they will get runs,” Williams advised.
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