West Indies vs England: Joe Root defends declaration after drawn 2nd Test
India Today
West Indies vs England, 2nd Test: Captain Joe Root said the visitors could have declared 10 overs earlier after West Indies eeked out a draw on Day 5.
England captain Joe Root defended his decision to declare on the final day of the drawn 2nd Test against the West Indies in Barbados.
By leaving his somewhat conservative declaration until lunch, he left his bowlers only 65 overs on a docile pitch to collect the 10 second-innings West Indies wickets needed for victory.
West Indies, chasing 282, lost three early wickets but captain Kraigg Braithwaite hit a fifty to stall England's hopes of triggering a collapse on the final day.
The hosts were never going to consider chase 282 or even a smaller target and risk their chances on Day 5.
But Root in a post match interview sounded as though he did not want to give the hosts even a sniff of a chance.
"It's always a tricky one isn't it ... trying to weigh that up," he said of the constantly changing mathematical calculation surrounding the declaration.
"Just with how small this ground is and how strong the wind was, you don't want to ... give too many overs.
