Brathwaite optimistic Windies can level S/Africa Test series

WITH spin option Gudakesh Motie still uncertain for the second Test against South Africa on Wednesday, West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite is favoured to name an unchanged squad for their final contest in Johannesburg.

Despite losing by 87 runs in pursuit of a gettable 247 for victory in the opening Test in Centurion on Thursday, Brathwaite said his team has learnt from its mistakes and will keep pressing on.

In their second innings with the ball, maroon pacers Kemar Roach (5/47), Jason Holder (2/7), Alzarri Joseph (2/30) and Shannon Gabriel (1/26) got the job done and did well to dismiss the Proteas for 116, to set up the 247-run victory target.

Motie, however, was not included in the starting XI for the first Test owing to injury, and up to press time on Tuesday, Brathwaite confirmed they were still awaiting confirmation on his availability from the medical team.

The match bowls off at 4am (TT time).

Brathwaite is unafraid to use the same player setup from the first game.

“We have an option with the spinner, in Motie, who didn’t play the first game, but we’re awaiting the medical team’s report.

“We got some guys, Jermaine (Blackwood) and Raymon (Reifer), showing us how to get runs against this attack. Regarding the (team) change, possibly not. I’m really backing the guys to get the job done.”

On the chances of squaring the series ahead of their three-match One-Day International series there, the West Indies opening batsman remains optimistic.

While he rues their inconsistency with the bat, Brathwaite wants an all-out effort in the final Test.

“I think that will be great (to square the series). It was very good for us as a bowling group to get 20 wickets. I thought that was very important. The first two sessions were too expensive, and that cost us, with South Africa getting a big first innings total.

“And as a batting unit, we got to improve, we’ve got to spend more time. But South Africa will come hard, no matter the 11 they play,so we got to be up for it.”

West Indies’ second innings display with the ball “shows that we aren’t far off,” he said.

“South Africa is a tough team at home but it goes to show, with a little more application, especially for the batters, myself included, we can do well here in these conditions.

“It gave us that belief that we can do it. We just got to keep believing. We had a lot of positives from the first Test and we got to just keep moving.”

Brathwaite said victory, at this stage, is all mental.

“It’s just to figure out how we want to score runs against each bowler. We got some dismissals, some balls were wide. So it’s important to have the clarity to know which balls you want to play and which to leave.

“Batting against world-class bowling and knowing how you want to score them, mentally we've got to be in that right place to firstly believe we could do it, bat and score runs. We’ve got to do it, simple as that.

“We know we want to score runs, get singles, rotate the strike and be aggressive to which bowler.

"It’s important we take these plans into the game. It involves a lot of pressure, but it’s important to do it under pressure. It’s never easy but we know we could do it and I’m backing these guys 100 per cent.”