West Indies captain Darren Sammy was pleased with his side’s spirit despite defeat by England in the first Test at Lord’s.
The tourists began the series as vast outsiders in the sport betting and they were below par on the opening two days in London.
However, they fought hard on days three and four to give England a real scare on their way to a five-wicket victory.
Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel struck early on the final day to leave England 57-4 chasing 191. Alastair Cook and Ian Bell hit 79 and 63 not out respectively to lead England to a hard-earned first win of the summer.
"We are quite pleased. We showed never-say-die attitude and there were some good performances. We will take these positives into the next Test," said Sammy.
"No-one gave us a chance and we kept coming back. That shows team spirit."
England looked set for a comfortable victory when West Indies were reduced to 36-3 in their second innings on the third day, having conceded a first-innings deficit of 155.
Sammy was left to rue the mad spell which saw the Windies lose Adrian Barath, Kieran Powell and Kirk Edwards just before tea.
"The bad hours here and there keep on happening. Hopefully, in future, we can just have a bad 20 minutes," joked Sammy.
"But you have got to be at your best all the time against the world’s number-one side."
Shivnarine Chanderpaul, along with Marlon Samuels, led the fight in typically obdurate fashion, hitting 91 to add to his unbeaten 87 in the first innings, giving them hope going forward that they will pick up some encouraging results and scores on this tour.
Sammy backed Chanderpaul to continue at five, despite calls for him to bat higher.
"He probably could bat at three, but there might be a situation where he gets out quickly and it is a different story. The other batsmen have to stand up, bat and set a platform," he added.
