MANCHESTER, England, CMC – West Indies captain Jason Holder said the Caribbean side had not performed at the standard expected, after they crashed to their fifth defeat in seven games here yesterday, to suffer elimination from the ICC World Cup.
Entering the tournament as one of the dark horses especially following their impressive showing in the Caribbean against England earlier this year, the Windies thrashed Pakistan in their opener but have not won again since.
Yesterday’s result – a chastening 125-run loss at the hands of India – left them eighth in the 10-team standings on three points and with no chance of reaching the top four.
“We let ourselves down significantly,” was Holder’s withering assessment of his side’s campaign following the latest defeat.
“I don’t think we seized the crucial moments in this tournament as well as we should’ve. We missed a few chances in the field which pretty much cost us.
“I thought the bowlers had a reasonable campaign, every time we asked of them they came out and delivered. As I said, we didn’t support them as well as we would like in the field – I thought we let ourselves down tremendously in the field.
“And in terms of our batting it was just too inconsistent.”
The World Cup results were, however, in keeping with West Indies’ one-day results in recent times. They have not won a series in five years and have won just eight of 39 One-Day Internationals inside the last two-and-a-half years.
Holder, who has led the side now since 2015, said it was important for West Indies to turn around their ODI form and called on the side’s talented younger batsmen to play their role.
“We need to improve. This is our weakest format of the three and it’s just something we need to address,” Holder lamented.
“Having said that, there are still a lot of positives inside the dressing room. I thought today Kemar Roach was very, very outstanding; Sheldon Cottrell has been a bright spark for us in this tournament and the youngster chipped in here and there.
“I guess what we can ask the youngsters to do is keep going a bit deeper and set the innings up as they have been doing but going a bit deeper in finishes.”
West Indies seemed on top after limiting India to 268 for seven but then collapsed for 143 all out in the 35th over, with only two batsmen – Sunil Ambris (31) and Nicholas Pooran (28) – passing 20.
A key moment in the India innings came when MS Dhoni was mis-stumped by Shai Hope off left-arm spinner Fabian Allen on eight. He went on to finish unbeaten on 56 and inspire a 70-run fifth wicket stand with Hardik Pandya (46).
However, Holder conceded the missed chance had proven costly but said India’s total should have been a problem for the Windies.
“If you look at it in hindsight, that (mis-stumping) is one crucial moment that we didn’t seize and it probably hurt us in the very end,” he said.
“But having said that, at the halfway stage [and chasing] 268, I would’ve taken that any day. It’s just a matter for our batters to go out and chase it but we just didn’t do it today.”
West Indies take on Sri Lanka next on Monday in Chester-le-Street.