GROS ISLET, St Lucia (CMC) – West Indies A head coach Hendy Springer has lauded his side’s fighting spirit and maturity as they prepared to take on India A in the third and decisive four-day ‘Test’ at the Beausejour Cricket Stadium here today. The hosts came within a whisker of winning the opening ‘Test’ in Barbados before being undone by a brilliant innings by captain Cheteshwar Pujara, before rebounding to crush the visitors by 125 runs in the second fixture in St Vincent earlier this week.
Over the next few days, they will go in search of another victory that would secure them the series and Springer said he was impressed with the attitude of his charges.
“I am seeing improvement. I am seeing commitment. I am seeing hard work. We have a group of young men who want to do well, who are enjoying their cricket and who are giving their all. Everyone understands what is required. This positive approach, the belief in each other, is paying off,” Springer said.
“We went from a situation where a few players seemed a little intimidated going into that first match, to a place where we came to within two wickets of victory … to the present situation, where we proved to everyone that we can perform and win at this level.
“We will have that same kind of belief going into the final match today. The surface here might be a bit different to those in Barbados and St Vincent, so we will make the necessary adjustment and play what we know.”
West Indies A’s performance at Arnos Vale was especially convincingly after their batsmen twice failed to put pressure on the Indians.
Set 220 for victory, India finished the third day tottering on 57 for four before being cleaned up in just over an hour on the final morning, losing their last six wickets for just 37 runs.
They were undermined by left-arm speedster Delorn Johnson who claimed six for 34 to finish with an eight-wicket match haul while captain Veerasammy Permaul finished with a nine-wicket haul.
“When we bowled we were very good. Johnson did a good job for us in Barbados and was a big support for (Jason) Holder,” Springer pointed out.
“He (Johnson) bowled with pace and also got the ball to swing on home turf in St Vincent. He showed great control from over the wicket, and when he went around the wicket, he also got results. That match was a significant stepping stone in his development.
“The captain has also been doing a great job with the ball and also with the bat when required. He assessed the pitch in St Vincent very well and bowled with great control. He was given the job of captain last year and you can see he is learning with every game and is getting the full support of everyone around him.”
He added: “This Indian team is very good in batting, with a top six who have done well at the first-class level, some of them have made triple-hundreds, so to bowl them out twice and for 94 in the second innings, is a huge boost for our team.”
Despite the low scores, Springer also praised the batting after Windies A battled back from near collapse at 81 for five in the second innings to post 204, with Donovan Pagon and Jonathan Carter getting half-centuries.
“I was very happy with the fight-back and resilience we demonstrated when we went over to St Vincent. The scores weren’t high but our batsmen battled hard and stuck it out in both innings.”
West Indies A have been strengthened by the inclusion of the Test duo of Kieran Powell and Assad Fudadin who returned from the tour of England earlier this week.

SQUADS:
WEST INDIES A – Veerasammy Permaul (captain), Jason Holder (vice-captain), Devendra Bishoo, Nkrumah Bonner, Kraigg Brathwaite, Jonathan Carter, Kyle Corbin, Assad Fudadin, Delorn Johnson, Kevin McClean, Kieran Powell, Donovan Pagon, Devon Thomas (wicketkeeper)

INDIA A – Cheteshwar Pujara (captain), Wriddhiman Saha (vice-captain/wicketkeeper), Abhinav Mukund, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Rahul Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Jalaj Saxena, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Robin Bisht, Akshay Darekar, Shami Ahmed, Parvinder Awana.