West Indies captain Jason Holder has said that his team fell some 40-50 runs short during their seven-wicket loss to Bangladesh at Taunton on Monday.
Posting an impressive 322 on board on the back of Evin Lewis, Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer’s respective half-centuries, the West Indies bowling attack was well and truly expected to put the game to bed. As it seemed though, the Bangla Tigers were braced for the short pitch approach the Calypso Kings had in store.
Despite going 133/3, the likes of Shakib Al Hasan and Linton Das steadied the ship and went on to play the highest fourth-wicket partnership for Bangladesh in the World Cup. Speaking about his team’s total, Holder said,
“Think its a bit of both (batting and bowling). We were around 40-50 runs short, the wicket played well the entire day just that we didn't get enough runs,” Holder said during the post-match presentation.
Both Shakib and Das hammered the likes of Shannon Gabriel, Oshane Thomas and Chris Gayle to absolute perfection. The bowling trio ended their tenure with an economy of 9.18, 8.67 and 11.00 respectively.
“We could have been a lot more disciplined with the ball and we let ourselves down in the field as well. Would have been a little challenging in the first ten overs after losing the toss and being asked to bat. Having said that, we got through the first 10 overs reasonably well,” Holder added.
“We were in a situation where we just didn't get the momentum as we probably should in the middle-overs with the bat and we had too much to do in the back-end. As I said before if you score 320 here, you gotta fight really hard in the field to defend it.”
“We didn't get wickets, and also we let one or two chances slip. We tried to hit the top of the stumps but didn't do it consistently. There is no excuse, we should have been a lot more disciplined. We have got other games to play and from here on everything is virtually a final for us and we have to be more clinical.”
After five games, West Indies sit seventh on the log with a solitary win and three defeats in their kitty. They next face New Zealand at Old Trafford on June 22 in what can be termed as a must-win fixture.
Feature image courtesy: AFP / Saeed Khan
