‘Gutted’ Holder wants team to ‘look in the mirror’

From the high of their opening victory over Sri Lanka, West Indies tied against Zimbabwe and then suffered two narrow defeats, by one and five runs, to slip out of contention for the tri-series final, and will leave Zimbabwe with just one win from four matches. Where did it all go wrong?

“It’s a difficult question,” West Indies captain Jason Holder said after his team’s tour-ending defeat to Zimbabwe in Bulawayo. “Luck wasn’t really in our favour in some instances but, out of the things that we could control, I didn’t think that we fielded well throughout the entire tournament, consistently.

“It’s very disappointing. It’s tough to be in this position, after starting the tour so well. At the beginning of the tour we felt we could have won the tournament, and to be in this position right now, we’re absolutely gutted. It’s a situation where we really need to look at ourselves in the mirror and see where we fell short, moving forward into the new year, and see how we can come together again and perform better.

“Today I felt Zimbabwe got too many runs, and we didn’t bat smart enough in the situation,” Holder added. “We lost wickets at crucial stages.” Zimbabwe’s 218 for 8 may have seemed a modest target, but conditions were tricky for batting and with rain around it was always possible that Duckworth/Lewis targets could come in to play. West Indies needed a steady start, but instead they lost three wickets inside the first 10 overs. Graeme Cremer used his bowlers cunningly, and …

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