Holder tells Windies to shape up as exit nears

PERTH, Australia: West Indies captain Jason Holder has challenged his batsmen to show more application after their four-wicket loss to India left their hopes of reaching the World Cup quarter-finals on a knife-edge.
After winning the toss and electing to bat, they slumped to 85 for seven at the WACA ground on Friday as their top order failed dismally, before Holder’s second half-century in as many matches allowed them to recover to make 182, a total they were almost able to defend.
A number of West Indian batsmen, including powerhouse opener Chris Gayle, gifted their wickets to India with injudicious shots.
The loss means the West Indies will need to beat the United Arab Emirates in Napier on March 15 to have any chance of advancing to the quarter-finals although they may still need other results to go their way.
Holder said he believed his side, which was dismissed for just 151 in their previous outing against South Africa, needed to address the issue of their repeatedly poor batting efforts.
“Obviously, we didn’t bat well in this this game and we didn’t bat well in the previous game,” he said.
“We need to address a few areas and be honest with ourselves. The batsmen need to be accountable for not putting runs on the board.”
Holder added: “I thought it was a good wicket to bat on. We didn’t apply ourselves when we batted.
“We should have been looking at in excess of 270. It is clear to me we just didn’t make enough runs.”
“It is tough trying to defend 182 on a good batting track against a quality batting line-up.”
Holder also defended his decision to bat first.
“If we had set the game up properly with the bat it would have been a different game in the end,” he said.
Meanwhile, West Indies great Michael Holding slammed the West Indies’ batting as “reckless and irresponsible” and was furious that Gayle, who struggled to make 21, gave three chances in the field.
He was also at the wicket when Marlon Samuels was run out.
“There were a lot of overs to go. Even if Gayle bats, say, 35 overs, he has a great chance of getting a huge score,” former fast bowling great Holding told espncricinfo.com.
“The strokeplay from the batsmen was just reckless and irresponsible cricket. They were not using their brains. They are just playing cricket, and not thinking about their cricket.”
Holding was also stunned by Holder’s decision to bowl part-timers Dwayne Smith and Samuels in the closing overs even though frontline seamers Jerome Taylor, Kemar Roach and Holder himself had seven overs left between them.
“Why did Samuels bowl? Jerome Taylor (2-33), West Indies’ best bowler, still had two overs left. The last five-six overs, West Indies seemed like they just gave up. It’s like they told India ‘The game is yours’.
“I simply can’t make sense of it. The sixth wicket fell in the 30th over. Why did Taylor not bowl those two overs? There was every chance West Indies could have gotten another two wickets and get right into the tail.”