“We just played some horrible shots at crucial stages” – Holder
Ballr Cup Tri- Nation Series…
By Akeem Greene
Captain of the West Indies One Day International (ODI) team, Jason Holder has posited that the side’s six wicket lost to Australia on Sunday in the Ballr Cup Tri- Nation Series at the National Stadium, Providence, was due to irresponsible batting throughout the innings.
Speaking to media at the post match press conference, Holder said, “They challenged us by building pressure well, they didn’t bowl any spectacular balls per say, we just played some horrible shots at crucial stages of the game which cost our wickets.”
The West Indies were bundled out for a paltry 116 in 32.3 overs, as opener Johnson Charles with a painstaking 22 off 40 balls top scored. At one stage the home side were 50-2 but lost their last eight wickets for 66 runs.
After the second wicket stand of 44 between Charles and Darren Bravo, the next best was 20 for the ninth wicket between Carlos
Braithwaite and Sunil Narine.
In speaking of the need for partnerships, Holder posited, “We didn’t bat well, we did not put enough runs on the board, we never really got any partnerships going, just not enough runs on the board to be honest; we didn’t had anything to bowl at.”
The batting mishap, made the West Indies secure an unwanted record, as having the second lowest total in an ODI at Providence, the lowest being 98, made by the said team against Pakistan in 2013.
Questioned on what a par score would have been considering the conditions, the all-rounder said, “Anything around 210 to 220 we backed ourselves to defend, previous games we have played here, it has not been high scoring”.
Holder, who was appointed captain of the ODI team on the eve of the 2015 World Cup, was in high praise of this champion off-spinner Sunil Narine, whose 6-27 in the win against the South Africans in the previous match is the best figures by a West Indian spinner.
On Sunday, Narine took 2-26 against Australia, striking twice in one over, which gave the Windies a sniff of a chance to claw their way back into the match.
In speaking of the bowling effort, the skipper said, “we tried really hard, we got four of the Australian wickets, I thought Narine did an excellent job for us at the end and we got some wickets up front.”
Now that the Guyana leg of matches for the West Indies team has been completed, the Caribbean side will now move to St. Kitts and Nevis for the next leg of matches and the captain is calling for more responsibility by the batters.
“We have bowled reasonably well for the two games, it is just important for the batsmen to build partnerships, I think it is crucial that we get some partnerships especially up front to give ourselves some cushion in the middle and be able to blast at the end with the power that we have,” the skipper explained.
After the St. Kitts leg, the matches will move to Barbados for the final leg and final at the Kensington Oval on June 26.
The West Indies would have defeated the South Africans by four wickets in their first match of the Series on June 3. ([email protected])