Holder wants WI trust the process

West Indies captain Jason Holder drives the ball through the covers against Sri Lanka in the first Test at the Queen’s Park Oval, St Clair.
West Indies captain Jason Holder drives the ball through the covers against Sri Lanka in the first Test at the Queen’s Park Oval, St Clair.

SEEMINGLY adopting the mantra of the young and exciting NBA team, Philadelphia 76ers, West Indies captain Jason Holder wants the regional side to trust “the process” and not think too much about the result when they meet Sri Lanka today in the second Test at the Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium in St Lucia at 10 am.

The Windies lead the series 1-0, after crushing Sri Lanka by 226 runs in the opening Test at the Queen’s Park Oval in St Clair on Sunday. Wicketkeeper/batsman Shane Dowrich led the way for the West Indies, scoring an unbeaten 125 to guide the team to a massive 414 for eight declared in the first innings.

Holder wants his team to keep up the momentum and clinch the three-match Test series but warned his players about thinking too far ahead and forgetting to do to get to their destination.

Yesterday, in an interview posted on the Windies Cricket Facebook page, Holder spoke about maintaining the winning form.

“(It is) very good to start the series well...we are out front right here in this series so we just have try to keep our foot on the accelerator right now,” Holder said.

The Windies captain says his team is ready for the challenge in the second Test.

“The guys are very focused and I am pleased with the two days’ preparation that we had leading up to this Test match. All things going well, we just need to be consistent in all three departments, and once we do that we should beat Sri Lanka again.”

Holder said everyone must play their part for West Indies to clinch the series. “We have two Test matches to close the series out. We would like ideally to close it out in this game, but I told the guys not to focus on the result.

We need to focus on the process, we need to focus on what we need to do in order to win the Test match and that is individuals accepting their roles and performing.”

In the first match, multiple Windies batsmen got into the thirties and forties but failed to convert their starts into half-centuries and centuries. Only Dowrich and Kieran Powell (88) got past 50 for West Indies.

Holder said the team has discussed capitalising on starts. “That is something that we spoke about after the first Test match. Quite a few of our batsmen got starts but never really kicked on, we really don’t want that to be a trend starting within the dressing room, so it is something that we really need to address now.”

SQUADS:

Windies ­– Jason Holder (captain), Devendra Bishoo, Devon Smith, Kraigg Brathwaite, Kieran Powell, Roston Chase, Miguel Cummins, Shane Dowrich, Shannon Gabriel, Jahmar Hamilton, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope, Kemar Roach.

Sri Lanka – Dinesh Chandimal (captain), Mahela Udawatte, Kusal Mendis, Kusal Perera, Roshen Silva, Angelo Mathews, Niroshan Dickwella, Rangana Herath, Dilruwan Perera, Akila Dananjaya, Jeffrey Vandersay, Lahiru Gamage, Kasun Rajitha, Suranga Lakmal, Lahiru Kumara, Asitha Fernando, Dhananjaya de Silva.

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"Holder wants WI trust the process"

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