Captain Jason Holder is urging Barbadians to support the West Indies as the regional cricket team hunt a historic series win over Sri Lanka.
After battling to a tense draw in the second Test in St Lucia on Monday, the Windies need only to avoid defeat in the final Test at Kensington Oval starting Saturday.
“They [Sri Lanka] are 1-0 down and will be coming to level the series and we are 1-0 up hoping to clinch the series, so there is all to play for in Barbados,” Holder said.
“Oh, we want to win that game. It’s obviously a special occasion in the Caribbean, it being the first day-night Test match in the Caribbean.
“I guess the people of Barbados will be coming out to support us . . . and it should be a really good spectacle under the lights at Kensington Oval,” he told reporters moments after the second Test ended.
The captain has signalled that his unit would be going “all out” to end the series on a winning note.
“We’ve been playing some pretty good cricket. Sri Lanka really pushed us in this last Test match and they’ve been playing some really good cricket as well. Their bowlers have really challenged our batters and, likewise, our batters have really had to dig deep to get some runs off their attack,” he said.
With the Windies ranked ninth in the ICC’s Test rankings on 22 points, nine fewer than the sixth-ranked Sri Lankans, Holder stressed that every win and every point gained was vital.
Holder said while their bowlers had been excellent, he needed batsmen to push on and make big scores.
“It is very important. I think every win is crucial and every point going towards the Test Championships is, obviously, crucial as well.
“I think we are playing some pretty decent cricket at the moment. Our bowlers have been doing an excellent job and our [batsmen] have put together some totals here and there. You can count one century so far in the series and a few half centuries, so it’s just about converting a few more of those starts into something really big,” Holder added. (CMC)
