Pride performance leaves Holder stumped

Pride performance leaves Holder stumped

Published: Guardian
Tuesday, January 26, 2016

BRIDGETOWN—Captain Jason Holder is at a loss to explain Barbados Pride’s poor showing in the final of the Regional Super50 last Saturday. The star-studded side, boasting 10 current and former West Indies players, went down by 72 runs to reigning champions Trinidad and Tobago Red Force in a lopsided affair at Queen’s Park Oval.

“I can’t really put my finger on it at the moment. We just weren’t good enough in the field … I reckon we gave away about 40 runs and really paid for it in the end,” Holder said.

“It’s tough in a final to make so many mistakes and come out winning the game at the end of the day so we just need to tighten up on that in the future.”

Winning the toss and opting to bowl, Pride were ragged in the field, allowing Red Force to reach 270 for seven off their 50 overs. West Indies batsman Darren Bravo top-scored with 97 while Barbadian opener Kyle Hope got 34 and captain Jason Mohammed, 31.

In reply, Pride slumped to 31 for four in the tenth over and never really recovered, eventually bundled out for 198 in the 43rd over. Shai Hope made a patient 50 while Carlos Brathwaite blasted an attacking 46 from 32 balls.

“We didn’t get off to a good start with the bat so we just had to, in a sense, rebuild in the middle and we never quite got it going,” Holder explained.

He added: “When you’re chasing 270-odd on these types of pitches you need a good start, you need to keep wickets in hand and we didn’t do that. We had an unfortunate collision on the field [between Shane Dowrich and Ashley Nurse] and Shane Dowrich was pretty much out of it afterward.

“He had to go to hospital while we were batting so he had to bat down the order which is a tough decision for us because obviously he has been very good for us.

“I thought we were doing pretty good in the middle. It was a top innings there from Carlos Brathwaite. I thought he really came and showed how we should play on this track and how to put pressure on these bowlers but it’s just a situation where we never got the partnerships going.”

Holder was one of several West Indies players who joined the Pride squad at the half-way stage of the tournament, following the tour of Australia. Likewise, Bravo also returned to strengthen the Red Force duty following West Indies duty, reeling off three half-centuries in as many innings, and Holder believed he was the difference for the hosts.

“We didn’t bowl too badly. I think the ball went into some pretty tight spots in terms of not going to the fielders where we set them and I think we just need to be a little more precise when we set fields,” he pointed out. “But credit to the way Darren played, he was outstanding. At that stage he came in, he knew he had to build an innings and be there at the end and he batted deep into the innings which was good for them.”

CMC