Diary
The best fast bowling in a while by Taylor
By Chris Gayle
Feb 8, 2009, 16:39

That win over England in Jamaica was right up there with the best for me. Jerome Taylor’s was the best fast bowling I have seen for a long while and he set the game up for us.

I rank the Test we won in South Africa over a year ago highly as that was the first time we had won over there, but this win at Sabina Park was definitely up there as one of our top three.

We won’t know just how good this win is until after the series when we can assess it properly and in its full context. Only then will we know if it is the best win ever.

This performance is what we have been talking about, playing well as a unit and getting the batting and the bowling functioning well together. It happened in this game - it was just tremendous. I hope we can carry it on and do even better in Antigua.

We are definitely not going to be lackadaisical, that's for sure, and we are not going to put any added pressure on ourselves. Expectation from everyone will be high for us to go there and do even better. But it's important that we just keep our cricket simple and do the basics right like we did at Sabina.

From a personal point of view it was a great game, to score a hundred on my home ground and then win the match as captain. I am maturing as a cricketer. I can control my emotions and aggression now a bit more. People can’t usually tell the way I feel as I don’t give much away. But earlier in my career, I definitely didn't think about stopping my aggression when I was batting.

But England know the type of person I am and I know they will have their plans for me in Antigua. They're going to try to bowl a bit wide to me, hoping I will make the mistake.

But I have been around for a few years now and I have learned as time has gone by. The first time being captain on my home ground was a lot of pressure as captain and batsman - in front of my home crowd and my family.

I tried to put that aside and concentrate on the task in hand. It was just really brilliant to get a victory and go on that lap of honour in front of our fans.