Nottingham: West Indies captain Jason Holder said Thursday that his batsmen need to take more responsibility after they lost to Australia by 15 runs in the World Cup.
Chasing 289 for victory, West Indies made a poor start before Shai Hope (68) and Nicholas Pooran (40) rebuilt the innings, but the Mitchell Starc-led Australian attack restricted them to 273 for nine in 50 overs.
“Guys just need to learn from the mistakes that they make,” Holder who scored 51 in the run chase, told reporters.
“Take a little bit more responsibility, and chasing especially, you just need to take responsibility, and it’s important that one of the top four batters be there at the very, end,” added the West Indian skipper.
Holder said that losing the game was something that he did not expect more so after restricting the Australians to less than 300 on what he termed a ‘batting friendly’ pitch.
“We definitely missed an opportunity,” Holder said. “It’s a bit disappointing to be losing a game like that when we’re in full control of the game, but these things happen. It just that we have to put this behind us and regroup and get back into winning habit in the next few games,” asserted Holder.
West Indies began their campaign strongly by crushing Pakistan thanks to hostile pace bowling. In the game against Australia also, they reduced their opponents to 79 for five. However, an explosive knock from Nathan Coulter-Nile, who scored 92 and a disciplined innings of 73 from former skipper Steve Smith lifted the Aussies.
“I just think we just need to be aggressive, continue to be aggressive, smart aggression, and just continue to look to take wickets,” Holder said of his bowlers. “I think the bowlers are doing fine… it’s just that the batters will now have to take more responsibility.”
Agencies