Batting coach Marcus Trescothick lamented England’s failure “to stand up in the pressure moments” after they endured a third day against West Indies where it had “all gone wrong”.
England are just 10 runs ahead with two second innings wickets in hand at the end of a dire third day that makes a series defeat seem certain.
Joshua da Silva guided West Indies to a first innings lead of 93 with his maiden Test century – again exposing England’s inability to skittle tails – then another top order malfunction left them in dire straits. Kyle Mayers took figures of five for nine.
Defeat will leave England with one win in their last 17 Tests, and winless in five series.
“We’re obviously immensely disappointed about what’s happened over the course of the day. We’ve not got it right in both departments,” said Trescothick.
“We’ve been better than that over the course of the series but we’ve not turned up and made it work as we have done in previous games.”
Asked about England’s capitulation when the series was on the line, Trescothick said: “That’s something for us to address for sure. We didn’t stand up in the pressure moments when it was going down to the wire.
“We haven’t stood up and performed as we have in the rest of the series, whereas they’ve had a couple of guys really step up and make a difference.
“Mayers bowled brilliantly and got something out of the pitch, Da Silva batted well for a hundred, his first one. We need to try and put in those performances when these times come around.”
Trescothick felt this was England’s “first bad day of the series”, but accepted it would cost them dear.
“We’ve had one bad day today and over the course of the series this is the first bad day we’ve had. Day one in Antigua we had a challenging day but fought back really well, Barbados we were really strong and controlled most of the game and today it’s gone wrong.
“It’s easy over the course of what we’ve had over the winter to throw it back and throw the baby out with the bath water. It’s all gone wrong, yes, we’ve had a really bad day and we’re really disappointed. We believe as coaching staff and players in that dressing room that we’ve made strides as a team over the course of the Test matches we’ve had.
“We’ll lick our wounds and try to come back from it but it’s been a really tough day and we’ve put the series in jeopardy.”
