'My rhythm today was fantastic' – Kemar Roach

After picking up his "surprising" five-wicket haul against Bangladesh on Wednesday, 4 July, Kemar Roach, the Windies paceman, said he was delighted to put his team in a good position in the first Test in Antigua.

Roach led the bowling attack with his exceptional 5/8 from just five overs as Bangladesh plummeted to their lowest Test score of 43 at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.

“Obviously it felt good. It came pretty rapid," Roach said, after the opening day. "It was a bit surprising. Obviously to go out there and perform for West Indies is the main goal. To do that today and put West Indies in a good position, I'm happy with that.”

Roach gave credit to Corey Collymore, the Windies bowling coach, for his improved performance. “I've been doing a lot of work with my bowling coach Corey Collymore," he said. "I think he's done a great job with me when he came on board."

With not much of an experience of bowling in North Sound, Roach explained that the advice of Alzarri Joseph, the local Windies bowler, worked for him.

"My rhythm today was fantastic; the ball came out just the way I wanted to.

"I haven't played much here, but I've been talking to one of the guys, Alzarri Joseph, he's from here. He told me that the wicket's always a good batting wicket, but what's important is to bowl in good areas if you want to get some rewards, so today was just that for me.

“I try to use the angles as much as possible. I tried to bring in all three aspects of dismissals into play: lbw, bowled, and caught. I just wanted to be as consistent as possible, make a batsman play as much as possible and, obviously play on the mistake.”

During his spell, Roach struggled with a hamstring niggle, which he revealed wasn't a serious one.

"I felt like something's there in my hamstring," he said. "It got worse as I went on; just tweaked it a little bit while running in ... It's not so serious so far. I pulled out of the innings to get some treatment.

"It's quite early but I'm feeling pretty good about bowling in the second innings again.”

The Windies finished the day on a 201/2, and according to Roach 450-500 runs on the board would put his side in a winning position.

“The plan is bat once, to get 450-500 runs on the board. I think it's going to be tough for the Bangladeshis to get. Once we bat and score that much, it'll be fine to win this Test match.”