Dyson chases greater consistency

The coach John Dyson has defended his bowlers after they let Sri Lanka off the hook in the second Test, leaving West Indies needing 253 to level the two-match series. The visitors were struggling at 32 for 4 before recovering through Thilan Samaraweera's 125 and boosting their chances of a 2-0 cleansweep.

The West Indies bowlers gave away too many opportunities to score and struggled to maintain their line and length when Samaraweera and Chaminda Vaas completed a 138-run partnership. "In talking about patience, when I watch Caribbean cricket all round, that's an aspect that's not there in any Caribbean cricket," Dyson said. "So to suddenly take these players and put them in the Test arena against some very good teams and expect them to have that patience is a tall order."

Dyson said the players have talked about the zones they need to hit, but the changes "don't happen overnight". "It takes time for people to get confidence in bowling plans," Dyson said. "Maybe my ideas are different to the people who were there before, but we're consistently working on the areas we bowl and the patience involved in the whole game.

"The guys do work hard in the net sessions we have, I've seen consistency with that. In the middle sometimes we bowl some brilliant stuff, at times perhaps too good, where players just can't nick them. We need to achieve more consistency throughout the whole innings. We tend to bowl some really good spells and then let ourselves down with bowling a bad hour that cost us a lot of runs."

Jerome Taylor was the best of the home attack, picking up 4 for 52, and Dyson was pleased with his progress. "Jerome is a very good cricketer," Dyson said. "If you look at him as a total package he is a bit like 'Vassy'. He has the ability to bat and I've seen him change his approach in his batting, and his bowling is always very, very good."

The performances of Taylor have also impressed Samaraweera. "The most difficult right through this series has been Jerome Taylor," Samaraweera said. "He bowled well, lovely line and length, and his balls move both ways."

West Indies have a tough challenge to level the series and Dyson was hopeful of a successful chase. "What I'd like to see," he said, "is some good sensible batting over the whole day."