West Indian leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo praised the Windies wicketkeeper-batsman for his mind-blogging innings against Sri Lanka in the first Test of the three-match series in Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad and Tobago on Friday (8 May).
At the Queen's Park Oval, Bishoo (40) and Dowrich (125*) stitched a 102-run partnership to help the hosts to post a mammoth total of 414/8 in the first innings, while their brilliant bowling display dismissed Lanka at only 185 in the first innings.
The Windies are currently shaken up in the second innings at 131 for 4. Dowrich is batting unbeaten on 11 this time partnered by Kieron Powell batting unbeaten on 60.
Speaking to Cricket West Indies, Bishoo looked back at his effort in the first innings, “I've played some good innings in the past, but this one will have a lot of value because of the position we were in. I had to come in and bat as long as possible and try to get a good partnership in.”
Bishoo is disappointed at missing out his maiden Test fifty, saying “Of course, I'm disappointed [at missing the landmark]. Over the years, I've been getting 40, 44, 47, 45... I don't know how many 40s are allowed. I really wanted to bat well, I didn't play too many shots, just wanted to focus and play as straight as I can. Sometimes things don't go as planned, but this was a good partnership, really important for us to have it.”
Commenting on Shane’s innings, “It [Dowrich's] was a very, very good inning. It was a key partnership. We took it step-by-step; we wanted to take it 20 runs at a time. He batted really well. We had a few tough overs, we wanted to conquer those moments and score runs whenever the opportunity came.”
West Indies’ all-round domination is continuing against Sri Lanka and Bishoo is confident of finishing the first Test in style as their pacers are in rhythm and have the necessary arsenal to restrict Sri Lanka.
He signed off by saying, “I think it's good to see our fast bowlers running in and have the fire in them and bowl with the pace like that. It's all done for now, but we have to come back fresh, knock early wickets tomorrow [Friday] and take it from there. So far, so good. We're trying to enjoy it as much as we can.”
