Despite the day's remaining overs dwindling and the two holding fort, the visitors showed no desire to call it a day early.
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West Indies all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite has accused England captain Joe Root of being “disrespectful” for waiting until the final five balls of the first Test to concede the draw. West Indies were reduced to 67 for four at the start of the last session, chasing an improbable 286 to win, but Nkrumah Bonner (38 off 138) and Jason Holder (37 off 101) batted for a combined 239 deliveries, adding 80 off 35 overs to deny England victory. Despite the day’s remaining overs dwindling and the two holding fort, the visitors showed no desire to call it a day early.
“If I were a senior player in the West Indies dressing room, I would have found it a bit disrespectful that in the last hour, with two set batsmen playing as they were and the pitch offering nothing, England still felt they could get six wickets, going all the way down to five balls left,” Brathwaite said on BT Sport.
“Would England have done that if it were an Ashes Test? Would they have done that against India, New Zealand, Pakistan? I think the answer is no, so why have they done it against us? If West Indies need any sort of steely determination added, I think that passage of play should have given them that. They should be thinking ‘we have two Tests now to prove we are better than England think we are’.”
On the final day of the first Test against England at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua on Saturday, West Indies survived a collapse either side of the tea interval to play out a draw. Set an unlikely victory target of 286, and stumbling at 67 for four at the start of the last session, first innings century-maker Nkrumah Bonner and former captain Jason Holder defied the visitors for more than two hours in an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 80 off 35 overs to see the home side to safety at 147 for four.
Bonner was named man of the match for his unbeaten 38, which came after a nine-hour-plus 123 in the first innings. Holder finished with a score of 37 not out, a significant contribution from the all-rounder against England.
