West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels says that he had some problems with the pink ball, while batting on the third day of the first Test match against Pakistan at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in the United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
The 35-year-old made a stroke-filled 76 off 139 balls with 13 boundaries as West Indies closed the day at 315-6 in reply to Pakistan’s 579-3 declared. West Indies batted all day to add 246 runs from their overnight position of 69-1. Samuels added 113 for the third wicket with left-hander Darren Bravo who played well for 87 off 258 balls with nine fours and a six.
Speaking after the day’s play Samuels said, “It was my first game against the pink ball and you would always find that bowler, who will give you trouble. For me, the bowler that got me out, was coming from high action and I was not seeing it at times. Even at times on the field we reacted late to it. However, a guy scored 300 runs, so it must be good for the game. We have to play more games to get used to the pink ball.”
Samuels was trapped leg before by pacer Sohail Khan, looking set to record a Test century.
“I would love to score a hundred against the pink ball but it did not happen. I want to contribute to my team and I was disappointed not to get a big one today,” said the Jamaican.
“We played Test cricket today, we were patient, put away the bad balls and as a team we should look at this, move on and build on it.”
Samuels said has lofty ambitions for this series.
“I would love to leave this series with a big contribution to the team. We want to win this series, so it is up to Bravo and I to leave a mark, we have to come up trump and score big for the team.”
West Indies goes into the fourth day today, looking for another 65 runs to avoid the follow-on.
“Shane Dowrich is in good touch, Jason Holder has a Test 100 so we still have batting there and hopefully we can get a good score from them,” said Samuels, having confidence in the lower order.
