Edwards Says Batsmen Must Dig In To Tame Pitch

Antigua Recreation Ground, Antigua & Barbuda:  West Indies fast bowler Fidel Edwards has tipped his batsmen to fight off the inconsistency of the pitch and post a positive reply to England’s formidable first innings total of 566 for nine declared in the 3rd Digicel Test of the Digicel Series 2009

The home team ended day two of the third Digicel Test on 55 for one, still 511 runs in arrears.  Edwards explained: “We still have a lot of batting to be done. But we still have Shiv (Chanderpaul), Sars (Ramnaresh Sarwan) and others inside. Hopefully those guys can go on to get some big scores.”

The Barbadian pacer, who produced a hostile spell early on day two with little reward, admitted the pitch was becoming more difficult to negotiate: “It’s bit up and down as you can see.  There are two areas in the wicket that have areas across it from the football field lines, and as soon as the ball hits there, you do not know if it’s going to get up or keep down.

“A couple of (England) guys got out with the ball keeping low.  Yesterday (Monday) evening a couple balls were jumping and throughout the game you may get a lot more getting that way.”

But he said that his team was prepared to battle hard to keep England out and maintain its 1-0 lead in the five-Test Digicel Series: “It’s behaving pretty badly out there sometimes.  But you just have to fight with it and get over it, just dig in and hopefully we can get a big total on the board as well.  The wicket isn’t really that bad. If you could get in you can get a big score.”