Port of Spain, Aug 12
South Africa captain Temba Bavuma said that batters need to be more ruthless after the first against West Indies ended in a draw at Queen's Park Oval.
In a rain-affected match, 142 overs were lost overall across the match, with West Indies finishing 97 runs short of an unlikely win and South Africa failing to take the final five wickets that would have delivered 12 World Test Championship points to the victor.
The draw was the first in men's Test cricket in more than 12 months and sees South Africa remain in seventh place on the World Test Championship standings with a 26.67 win-loss percentage, and the West Indies stay in ninth at 20.83 per cent.
"We tried our best from our side. Just wasn't enough time in the end. Wicket didn't break up as much as we expected as well. The elements got the better of a good competitive game of cricket. We went with an extra batter to cushion our inexperience. We'd like to be more ruthless as batters. Guy like Stubbs will take a lot of confidence from a knock like that. There are a lot of positives. We lost time because of the weather," Bavuma said.
"We'd have liked the wicket to deteriorate a bit more but it didn't. We tried our best with the resources we had. Little bit more time and we could be saying something different. On that wicket, felt like Keshav and KG were best suited to get wickets. The rest of the bowlers did their jobs well. Two guys to attack and the rest to support," he added.
After enjoying a healthy first innings lead, South Africa declared their second innings at 173/3 prior to lunch on the final day. But Alick Athanaze's 92 and rain spoiled Proteas hopes of winning the match despite Keshav Maharaj's 4-88 performance. He was named Player of the Match as he bagged eight scalps in the game.
On the other hand, the West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite heaped praise on his batters and believed they could have chased the target.
"I am happy with our batting group. The guys are quite positive, I am proud of the batting unit. We believed we could get those runs. It wasn't going to be easy, We need to keep going from strength to strength. The pitches are a bit slower in the Caribbean. For me, it's about adjusting when to go slow and when to accelerate," Brathwaite said.
"It's all about belief and planning and bat as per the plan. Alick showed us that today. Hodge was good in England. His plan was the sweep and he struck to it, even though he got out to a sweep."
The second and final Test of the series will be played at Providence Stadium in Guyana on Thursday, August 15.