Holder impressed with Windies’ discipline

West Indies captain, Jason Holder
West Indies captain, Jason Holder

NOTTINGHAM, England, CMC – West Indies captain Jason Holder has praised his troops for the discipline they showcased in their commanding opening victory over Pakistan in the ICC World Cup on Thursday.

The Windies’ bowled with pace and precision, peppering their opponents with short balls on their way to bundling out Pakistan for just 105 – their second lowest ever World Cup total.

Oshane Thomas was the main destroyer grabbing four wickets, while Holder grabbed three wickets and Andre Russell two.

Holder said he was satisfied with his bowlers for sticking to the plan.

“Yeah, I was pleased with the discipline. Outside the aggression, we need to be following up on our deliveries and building overs quite nicely. One of the things we always harp on about in the dressing room is what are we bowling outside of the aggressive balls, whether it be a short bowl or if you’re going up there for a yorker or whatever it may be, you’ve got to follow up with some other deliveries. It’s just about stacking overs nicely together and building some pressure,” the skipper said.

Holder said with four fast bowlers in their lineup, short balls would feature prominently in their game plans.

However, he said their strategies would change depending on their opponents and the batsmen.

“Look, when we start any campaign we always have team meetings. We go through the players on the opposition and just try to formulate our plans.

“As I said generally, we’ve got a team plan to be aggressive. We get a lot of short bowls in the nets, as well, too, so it’s good to see a lot of short bowls transcending from the nets onto the field of play,” Holder said.

“We will just go through batters like normal and we just try to work with tactics to each batter.”