Following a four-wicket win yesterday over England in the first of the three-Test series, West Indies captain, Jason Holder is relishing what he deemed “a massive win.”
Speaking at the post-match press conference held virtually after the game Holder reflected on the victory and stated “It is a massive win,” while noting “to beat England in England is no easy feat, again we did it the last time we were here in 2017 so we all know what the feeling feels like but again, things have changed drastically since then and they are a massive unit in their backyard so to start the series well is a very promising start for us and we feel very proud with the way we performed.”
The 28-year-old who picked up his best bowling figures during England’s first innings said that this is one of the best victories the team has had lately and contended that the victory was set up in the penultimate day.
“Yes it is right up there with one of the best victories we’ve had as a group, to me yesterday [Saturday] was one of the best days I’ve had in Test cricket, it was a hard and long toil…” he said.
The number one ranked all-rounder said that it was the will power of the team that catapulted them over the top tier side.
“It’s just the will power, we knew what was at stake we knew how important yesterday evening was particularly. We knew we had 98 overs to bowl in the day and it was quite likely we will go to seven o’clock [p.m.] so I was just doing it in time. Myself and Alzarri [Joseph], we picked up the ball and said we were going to bowl until half six [18.30 hours] and the other two will come back and finish when we took the second new ball. It was just will power, we knew if we had gotten the wickets yesterday evening it would make the job easier and we could at least push the day…Had England batted out the day in a much more commanding way it would be a lot more difficult to push for a win,” he said.
Holder was in high praise for the bowlers, adding “the bowlers really put in, every time I asked the bowlers to come up and give a spell they came and tried to give a massive effort. Credit must (go) to everyone yesterday and I think yesterday was a hard fought day of Test cricket and we really reaped the rewards at the end.”
The skipper admitted that despite the position of the game, nervousness was still rampant throughout the dressing room. He recalled, “Actually this morning I woke up and just wanted to fast forward to the end of the day with us winning. At the start I guess there were a few nerves going around the dressing room but Roston [Chase] and Jermaine [Blackwood] really settled the nerves down and got us in a position we could lay a foundation. We knew once we got a partnership the English bowlers would have gone flat.”
Nevertheless, Holder also complimented the English bowlers for their grit which created an evenly matched contest.
“Credit to England, they threw a lot at us [Ben] Stokes, [James] Anderson, Jofra [Archer], Mark [Wood] they all put in a hell of an effort and were all challenging so we knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Holder said.
The two sides will now prepare for the second Test which starts on Thursday.
