BRISTOL, England, CMC – West Indies captain Jason Holder isn’t too concerned about a lack of playing time for his troops following Sunday’s rained out match against South Africa.
Only 12.4 overs were possible before heavy showers brought an end to the day’s proceedings, with South Africa 95 without loss.
However, Holder said all of the players in the 15-man squad had either played in the Indian Premier League or took part in the recently concluded Tri-Nations Series involving Ireland and Bangladesh.
“It was not ideal today with the rain, but it’s out of our control. Obviously, it’s a situation where we need to hope we get some cricket in in the next two days against New Zealand.
“We just came from Ireland and playing the Tri-Nation Series there, so we’ve had a lot of cricket leading up to this. Some of the guys have been playing IPL cricket and everyone was playing cricket leading up to this tournament, so I think we’re all well attuned to the conditions and looking to start the tournament,” Holder said.
In today’s shortened game, Proteas opener Hashim Amla scored an unbeaten half-century and together with Quinton de Kock scored at seven and a half runs an over.
Most of the West Indies’ bowlers were expensive and Holder said there needed to be improvements in that area heading into Tuesday’s final warm-up match against New Zealand
“We have to make some slight adjustments in terms of our length. I think generally we were a bit too short and we offered a bit of width at times too, so especially in these conditions where the ball doesn’t do as much I just think that you need to be as accurate as you possibly can in terms of holding a line and length and try to create some problems there,” Holder said.
“If you stack up some dot balls and stack up some pressure overs together then more often than not you’ll get the wickets you’re looking for.”
