It’s becoming a familiar feeling for Jason Holder, after the West Indies skipper was left to rue what might have been after another dramatic defeat at this ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.West Indies came agonisingly close to chasing down Sri Lanka’s total of 338/6 – which would have been a tournament record – in Durham.But when Fabian Allen was run out on 51 and Nicolas Pooran nicked off after a magnificent 118, their enthralling chase was over.Earlier this tournament Carlos Brathwaite fell just a metre short of a match-winning six against New Zealand, while the West Indies also had their chances against Australia.But in the end they remain without a win since their opening match victory over Pakistan at Trent Bridge and the skipper admits to being fed up. “It seems to be the case in this World Cup, we have had a few close games but are just unable to get over the line,” he said.“It is disappointing to come so close on a number of stages and not get that win.
We can look back and pinpoint a number of areas, we didn’t field particularly well, we probably gave up 30-40 runs.“But when we were batting I thought we were always in the game with a shout. But we lost a lot of wickets at crucial stages.”Shimron Hetmyer, Carlos Brathwaite and, crucially, Allen were all run out in the chase and that ended up costing them dear.And Holder struggled to excuse the communication breakdowns that cost his side, although he reserved special praise for Pooran’s maiden ODI ton that got them so close to victory.“(Run outs) are virtually impossible to control from the off the field,” he added.“You can sense a couple of things and get a message out to the middle to tell them to calm down.“But they were all against the run of the game and unnecessary. It’s unfortunate but I don’t think it should be happening at this level.“We have shown some fight this entire campaign. I’m proud of certain individuals who definitely put their hands up and put their hearts on the line.“Nicholas (Pooran) played an outstanding innings, he knocked it around as easily as he possibly could. The knock that Fabian played was sensational as well. The young talent is there, it is up to us to bring it together again.”And Holder hopes that the talent on display will be the bedrock of future World Cup campaigns for the West Indies.“What he (Pooran) has produced is what we expect him to produce, we want him to get better and improve,” he added. “We selected him for a reason and gave him full backing to go and play the game he wants to play.“Yes he will make mistakes as a young player but it is important for development to take place. He needs to learn from scenarios and we all need to learn from scenarios we have been faced with.“We will look after Nicholas the best we possibly can, I expect big things. He has got the talent, ability to change gears, he can improvise, has every shot in the locker and it is just a matter of him putting it together more often.”
