World’s no.1 Test side, India annihilated West Indies in the first Test of the two-match series at Antigua by 318 runs. Windies got bundled-out on 100 runs after India set a stiff target of 419 runs for the hosts on the day of five of the Test series opener.
At one stage, West Indies were struggling at 15 for 5 and if it was not for Kemar Roach’s 38 and Miguel Cummins’ 19, the host nation would have got all-out on a much lesser total.
“We really have to stop making excuses and sort this issue out. It just keeps on happening,” said a frustrated Holder on his team’s latest batting collapse.
“We failed to capitalise on a good position in the first innings and just weren’t up for it in the second. We can’t go on like this.”
He added, “I think we only have ourselves to blame in terms of the batting performance. We should have batted a lot better. We need to take responsibility as a group. Players have to own up responsibilities. Bumrah bowled really well. It was one of those spells which would have dislodged most of the top-order players. We got to be much better as a batting unit. We got to be better.”
India’s Jasprit Bumrah finished with magical figures of 5/7 while Ishant Sharma, who had taken five wickets in the first innings scalped three wickets in the second innings of West Indies. India’s Shami also took two wickets.