Seales praises Sri Lanka for 'brave decision' to bat first

"As a batting unit, we had a good score. So bowlers have a good, big responsibility to make the game for us," Sonal Dinusha says after the second day's play

It was a "bold call" on Sri Lanka's part to choose to bat in the second Test in North Sound "seeing how the pitch played last week", West Indies quick Jayden Seales said after the visiting side declared on 549 for 9 on the second afternoon.

"Firstly, it was a brave decision to bat first seeing how the pitch played last week," Seales said after the second day's play, with West Indies having reached 58 for 1 in 24 overs in reply as they chase a rare series win and crucial WTC points. "We thought initially that we were in for a good chance to get early wickets and probably break the back of their batting. They batted well, must give them credit for that, they batted well.

"And the wicket seems to be an easy-paced one now, [though] there's still a bit of lateral movement. It's more of a new-ball pitch. Once the lacquer comes off [the ball] and the hardness of the ball goes out, it's pretty easy to bat whether you're bowling in a good area or not. It seems pretty easy-paced."RelatedKusal Mendis, Dinusha make it Sri Lanka's day in Antigua

Seales picked up two wickets in the Sri Lanka innings. The first of those made him the second-fastest West Indies bowler to the mark of 100 Test wickets (in terms of balls bowled) behind Ian Bishop.

"Yeah, I'm really pleased with the effort," he said. "It took a while to get there from coming into the Test series and it was a bit of hard work, a bit of a frustrating period. But yeah, I was really elated to get that 100th wicket and was just looking to keep doing a job for the team."

If Lahiru Udara was Sri Lanka's batting star on the first day with his first Test century - 188 in over six hours - then the old-and-new pair of Kusal Mendis and Sonal Dinusha dominated on the second day. The two of them put on 143 runs in 246 balls for the sixth wicket. Mendis scored 69. Dinusha finished on 92, eight short of his first Test century.Jayden Seales got to the 100-wicket mark in the Test•AFP/Getty Images

"Unfortunately, I missed my maiden century, but I'm really proud of myself, contributing 92 runs for the team," Dinusha said. "So yeah, we [Mendis and he] planned to play our normal game. Unfortunately, we lost the Test last week, but as a good team, you know, [we want to have a] good comeback. This is a good score for us.

"As a batting unit, we had a good score. So bowlers have a good, big responsibility to make the game for us."

West Indies, though, will back their batters to make the game too, after they put up 626 for 9 declared in their only innings in the first Test, which they won by an innings and 217 runs.

"Just more of the same from last week," Seales said of the expectation from the batters. "We batted well last Test match, albeit from the lower-middle order, so to speak. But the top order, everyone got starts. So it's just for them to continue in that same vein and push on further into the innings and then everyone come in to just get a big score for the team."