Holder calls for WI win
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, (CMC): BACK-TO-BACK DEFEATS to England last weekend have left West Indies facing a second straight series whitewash, a fate they will earnestly attempt to avoid when they contest the final One-Day International at Kensington Oval here today.
The Caribbean side slumped to a 45-run loss in the opening game at the Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium last Thursday and two days later, lost by four wickets in the second encounter at the same venue.
But even though the threematch series has already been decided, captain Jason Holder urged his side to stay focused on securing a victory especially with West Indies urgently needing to bolster their ranking in order to earn automatic qualification for the 2019 Cricket World Cup.
“A win here obviously would be very valuable. Pakistan is ahead of us [in the one-day rankings] as well so we just need to pick up points there,” Holder told reporters here Wednesday.
“We haven’t worked it out mathematically but we know the importance of every game especially playing a side that is higher ranked than us. We’ve got England now, Pakistan afterward, then we have India later down in the year and then we also have one-dayers in England.
“Those are all teams that are ranked higher than us.
“The magnitude of the situation is for us to win these games against higher ranked sides, and I think once we do that, we’ll definitely qualify for the World Cup.”
KILLER INSTINCT
In both previous games, West Indies found themselves with chances to turn the results their way, but lacked the killer instinct.
Chasing 297 in the opener, they were 190 for four in the 39th over but threw away their last six wickets for 61 runs, to surrender meekly.
Then, in last Sunday’s encounter, England plunged to 124 for six at the half-way stage in pursuit of 226 but West Indies proved sloppy in the field, and Joe Root (90 not out) and Chris Woakes (68 not out) capitalised, engineering an unbroken stand of 102 for the seventh wicket to frustrate the hosts.
Holder said despite the two disappointing performances, the Windies had remained upbeat and were optimistic about turning their fortunes around.
“We’ve also let ourselves down in the field in terms of dropping catches and being a bit sloppy in the field so that’s obviously an area we have paid some attention to, and I think once we hold those half chances, games can be a lot different for us.”
Last October, West Indies were swept by Pakistan in a similar three-match series in United Arab Emirates. The following month, they struggled in Zimbabwe during the TriNations Series involving the hosts and Sri Lanka, missing out on the final after winning just one of four games.