Holder tells Windies to shape up as exit nears
The loss means the West Indies will need to beat the United Arab Emirates in Napier on March 15.
PERTH (AFP) - West Indies captain Jason Holder has challenged his batsmen to show more application after their four-wicket loss to India left their hopes of reaching the World Cup quarter-finals on a knife-edge.
After winning the toss and electing to bat, they slumped to 85 for seven at the WACA ground on Friday as their top order failed dismally, before Holder s second half-century in as many matches allowed them to recover to make 182, a total they were almost able to defend.
A number of West Indian batsmen, including powerhouse opener Chris Gayle, gifted their wickets to India with injudicious shots.
The loss means the West Indies will need to beat the United Arab Emirates in Napier on March 15 to have any chance of advancing to the quarter-finals although they may still need other results to go their way.
Holder said he believed his side, which was dismissed for just 151 in their previous outing against South Africa, needed to address the issue of their repeatedly poor batting efforts.
"Obviously, we didn t bat well in this this game and we didn t bat well in the previous game," he said.
"We need to address a few areas and be honest with ourselves. The batsmen need to be accountable for not putting runs on the board."
Holder added: "I thought it was a good wicket to bat on. We didn t apply ourselves when we batted.
"We should have been looking at in excess of 270. It is clear to me we just didn t make enough runs."
"It is tough trying to defend 182 on a good batting track against a quality batting line-up."
Holder also defended his decision to bat first.
"If we had set the game up properly with the bat it would have been a different game in the end," he said.
