NORTH SOUND, Antigua, CMC – West Indies captain Jason Holder yesterday flagged a number of glaring areas where he felt his team went wrong but said the biggest flaw was in “execution”, after they tumbled to a heavy innings and 92-run defeat to India within four days in the opening Test.
The 24-year-old, in his sixth Test at the helm, faced a barrage of questions from members of the media at the end of the game, which ended inside the first hour after tea yesterday at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground.
Holder said his young team was hurting after the defeat and were examining where there went wrong over the four days.
“It is always tough playing catch up cricket. In the next match we need to bowl better in partnerships, string together more maidens over a period,” the Barbadian said.
“We have to build pressure. We weren’t able to do that in this match and scoring became quite easy for the Indian batsmen.”
Off-spinner Ravi Ashwin took seven for 83 as the Windies were bowled out for 231 in their second innings after being forced to follow-on on Saturday’s third day.
Things could have been worse were it not for some courageous batting from Carlos Brathwaite and Devendra Bishoo, who put on 95 for the ninth wicket, holding up India’s victory bid after West Indies slumped to 132 for eight before tea. The strongly-built Brathwaite made 51 not out – his third half-century in as many Test matches – to follow up his 69 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in January and 59 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground last December.
Bishoo, meanwhile, made a career-best 45.
“Execution is the name of the game at the end of the day and in the end we have to admit we didn’t execute well enough. We need to string together partnerships for longer periods,” Holder said.
“Today Bishoo and Carlos showed what is possible once you give yourself a chance to get in and play well. We had 20 to 30-run partnerships, but we weren’t able to convert them to bigger partnerships like India had when they batted and that is something we have to get better at.
“Test cricket is about occupying the crease for ling times and we didn’t really show that here.”
Holder added: “We didn’t really bowl well in the first innings. It was a daunting task, trying to chase 560-odd. We obviously need to bowl a bit better. Shannon (Gabriel) bowled extremely well, Bishoo was decent. We just need to string together some more dot balls [and] some more pressure deliveries.”
