I Was A Bit Nervous - Ramnaresh Sarwan

Walking out at Lord's on Thursday morning as West Indies captain was a proud and humbling moment for me. It was an honour. It was even doubly special because it was at Lord's, the universally agreed home of cricket. I must confess that as play got started I was a bit nervous for the first two overs. It did feel somewhat strange. However by the third over I was fine.

After I won the toss and chose to field first I thought we bowled too straight in the first session. After lunch though, we came back really well. Credit must be given to the bowlers who did a fantastic job after an ordinary start.

In the evening session we continued to do well, sticking to our plans. I believe we needed two more wickets by the end of the first day's play. If England had lost five wickets at the end of day one the game would have been in our favour. However they lost three and I believe that that meant that the game was balanced. Having to go on and off the field because of the bad weather was a bit frustrating but it worked in our favour somewhat as it gave our bowlers a chance to recover and return fresh.

Our overall plan was to try to grab two wickets on the morning because we knew it was going to be difficult early up for the batsmen. The bowlers created the chances but we were unable to finish the job and spilled a couple of catches. I thought Daren Powell and Jerome Taylor bowled exceptionally in the first session. Unfortunately after lunch we took the new ball and we were not able to bowl the consistent line that was required for success. It was a repeat of what transpired in the first session of the first day. Proper use of the new ball is clearly an area we will need to work on.

The English batsmen batted very well. When they were faced with testing periods they fought through it however I thought the debutant wicketkeeper Matthew Prior was outstanding. When he came in to bat it was well set up for his style of play with the score being 363 for 5. He was afforded the chance to be positive and play his natural game. He is a player who is always looking to score and players such as those are dangerous and that was clear today with him scoring 126 from 128 balls.

However what is gone is gone and it's important that we do not let our heads drop tomorrow if we have to bowl. We must contain them from the outset.

When we bat we need to be positive. Time is going to play a vital part in the rest of this game and we must recognize that and bat time. It would obviously be very difficult to come back from this stage and win the game outright but we are in a situation where we can firstly work towards a draw. If we can achieve that it would be a good start to the tour.

That being said we must first be positive as after all this is the game of glorious uncertainties.