England in West Indies: Joe Root says tourists 'desperately frustrated'
- Published
- comments
England have scored 77, 246, 187 and 132 in this series
England's players are "desperately frustrated" after falling to another crushing defeat by West Indies to lose the series, says captain Joe Root.
The tourists collapsed from 35-0 to 132 all out on Saturday as West Indies won the second Test by 10 wickets inside three days in Antigua.
They lead the three-match series 2-0 after winning the first Test in Barbados by 381 runs.
"We've been outperformed once again. It's hard to take," said Root.
England were dismissed for 187 in the first innings at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium after being put in to bat.
West Indies showed superb discipline on a pitch showing variable bounce to make 306 in response, with Darren Bravo scoring 50 off 216 balls in 340 minutes, the third slowest fifty in Test history.
England have collapsed in all four innings in the series, having been bowled out for 77 and slipping from 215-4 to 246 all out in the first Test.
"We haven't performed with the bat as we would have liked and that hasn't helped our case," said Root, who has scored only 40 runs.
"You won't win many games scoring less than 200 twice.
"It was a very challenging pitch - you wouldn't say it was a fair contest between bat and ball - but both sides are playing on it and West Indies deserve credit for finding ways to manage the surface.
"I would have bowled. It could have made a difference. Ultimately West Indies had that opportunity and exploited it."
England will look to avoid a series whitewash when the third Test in St Lucia starts on 9 February.
"We need to make sure we put in a good performance and win that game - it's as simple as that," said Root.
"It's been disappointing with the bat here and last week, so it's a great chance for us to right some wrongs."
'We have to be better than that'
Before this series England had won eight of their last nine Tests, including beating world number one side India 4-1 at home and sealing a 3-0 whitewash in Sri Lanka.
They have only the final Test against West Indies and a four-day Test against Ireland in May to prepare before the home Ashes series against Australia starts on 1 August.
"It was very poor - the batting followed on from the first game and we just didn't bat very well at all," said England coach Trevor Bayliss.
"It was a difficult wicket to bat on, but we have to find a way and we haven't done that in these two Tests and they did bowl extremely well.
"In Sri Lanka, the bounce of the ball went our way. In this series, it hasn't gone our way, but we have to be better than that.
"There's a lot of cricket to be played between now and the Ashes."