West Indies have their own instability to blame for being bundled out of the International Cricket Council World Cup in the quarter-finals, skipper Jason Holder said after being defeated by New Zealand.
The class of 2015 fell quiet short of the standards set by proud West Indian teams of the past which have won the World Cup twice.
They were the last side to qualify for the play-offs and in their first sudden-death game in Wellington on Saturday they were all out for 250 runs in the 31st over after New Zealand had posted an imposing 393 runs for the loss of 6 wickets.
The Black Caps innings was set up by a marvelous World Cup record 237 not out by Martin Guptill, the second highest One Day International score ever, but the West Indian skipper Holder said that would not have happened under a better West Indies team.
After seeing Marlon Samuels drop Guptill when the opener had made just four, Jason said, it was obviously a good innings. He took the match away from West Indies. But they put him down early and they had a few half opportunities which they could possibly have taken.
He thinks they need to respond a wee bit better when they are bowling at the death. They did not really land their yorkers and they paid for it.
The Jamaican skipper said the performance was typical of the way the West Indies had played throughout this World Cup, winning 3 and losing 3 pool matches. They have had some good matches, they have had some bad matches. Their bowlers have to be a lot more consistent than they are at this moment.
The 23 years old Jason Holder was a surprise choice to lead the Caribbean team, taking over from Dwayne Bravo who along with Kieron Pollard was excluded for the World Cup following the players’ strike during their India tour previous year.
He was quoted saying: “Sammy’s obviously a senior player, Benn is also a senior player. We always try to get input from everybody and just try to get the best field for the batsmen at a particular stage of the game.
I’ve been through a lot. There’s been a lot of criticism thrown left right and centre, all over the place.”
He concluded saying that they have had some good times and he has learned a lot in how to manage the players and get the best out of them.