Jason Holder laments on poor performance in first Test

West Indies skipper Jason Holder lamented his side’s performance following India’s massive win in the first Test of the series at Antigua. Speaking at the press conference at the end of the match proceedings, Holder stated that the Windies played catch-up cricket for the most part of the match. He also lamented the batsmen for not being able to string a successful run of partnerships and explained that they certainly needed an improvement.

“Yeah, it’s always tough to play catch-up cricket. We never bowled well in the first innings…we had some good bowling partnerships but not for long sessions. Going forward we definitely need to improve, to string together better bowling partnerships, bowl more maidens. Having said that we were not able to create enough pressure.”

Speaking about the debut of Roston Chase, Holder said, “In hindsight, you can say a lot of things. The combination we played had four bowlers and an all-rounder in Roston Chase, who bowls some off-spin. But the execution is the name of the game. I don’t think we executed well enough.”

“I think we need to string together partnerships for longer periods. We tend to get 20-30-run partnerships but haven’t been able to convert it to fifty and then onwards. Test cricket is about occupying the crease and spending time, but we never showed up for long periods. Some players got starts but were not able to kick on. It’s important for one of the top four batsmen to actually set the tone.

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In the first innings, Kraigg Brathwaite did a decent job of it, but we’re not able to string together partnerships upfront and set up a good foundation for a good first innings total. And we were playing catch up from there.”

“Ideally, that’s what we would expect from top-order batsmen (to get runs). To be fair, they have to carry the demands of this young batting side. Unfortunately, Bravo didn’t get any runs in this Test. Marlon showed some form in the second innings. (It’s) important for those two guys to carry the batting and lay the foundation. But I couldn’t agree more with you that onus is on them. Having said that, we have more enough capable batsmen.”

“To be honest, myself and Carlos are going up to a certain point in terms of what our roles are, bowling areas together and pick up one or two wickets. But if runs are leaking from both ends, primarily from the other end, it makes cricket a little easier for batsmen. Having said that, we tried to get some wickets. But it just didn’t come together. There is no doubt we need to take some wickets going forward into the next Test match. You must give the Indian batsmen credit. [Virat] Kohli and [Ravichandran] Ashwin played well. We put Ashwin down. Had we taken that chance you never know how the game could have brought. It’s cricket again. (We) just need to hold our chances. In terms of Carlos, me and other bowlers, just make sure we chip in.”

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