Jason Holder has been captain of the West Indies in one form of the game or another since 2014 when a Cricket West Indies selection panel led by former captain Clive Lloyd selected him at just 23 years old.
The decision was controversial and the young cricketer has had to prove himself over and over, eventually losing his captaincy in the West Indies One-Day International and T20 teams.
In the Test arena though, Holder has reigned supreme, becoming the number-one Test allrounder in the world and just today, moved up to number two among pace bowlers after his seven-wicket match haul during the first #RaiseTheBat Test against England at the Ageas Bowl, which concluded with a four-wicket West Indies victory on Sunday.
Holder’s contribution to that Test win was noticeable and took me back to another performance from Holder of real worth, against the same opposition.
In 2019, the West Indies, courtesy of a 2-1 Test series win in the Caribbean against England, earned the Wisden Trophy which they are now in England attempting to defend.
In that series, the West indies also took a 1-0 series lead, with Holder also playing a leading role.
Batting first, the West Indies, despite 81 from Shimron Hetmyer and 54 from Roston Chase, only managed to score 289 against the bowling of James Anderson, 5-46, and Ben Stokes, 4-59.
But England were terrible with the bat, going bowled out for 77 thanks to Kemar Roach, 5-17, Holder, 2-15, and Alzarri Joseph, 2-20.
England, despite the failure, looked like they could still get a target they could chase and a way back into the Test after Kraigg Brathwaite, 24, and John Campbell, 33, were the only scores of note in the West Indies’ top order.
Hetmyer, batting at six, scored 31 but lost the plot to leave the West Indies 120-6.
The West Indies ended day two, 127-6, with Shane Dowrich unbeaten on 27 and Holder on 7.
The lead was 339 but with three days of cricket to play, the hosts certainly needed a bigger total to ensure they couldn’t lose the match.
Holder had only scored five in the first innings but on the third morning, he was a different man.
His determination to push the West Indies advantage was notable. The first session of the day was, in a word, sedate, as the side looked to bat time and leave themselves with a much bigger target than they currently had.
Then Holder began the counter-attack.
That counter-attack would end with the six foot, seven inch West Indies leader unbeaten on 202.
He would slam eight sixes in an entertaining knock that did more than just seal the West Indies’ victory but also cemented Holder’s place as one of the premier allrounders in the game today.
Batting with Holder was the perfect foil. Shane Dowrich would also get to an unbeaten century, scoring 116, but his innings was dwarfed by an example of controlled hitting that left Holder as just the third batsman in the history of the game to score a double century while batting eight or lower.
When Holder thumped Keaton Jennings to the boundary for four to bring up his double century, before immediately declaring, with the West Indies 627 runs to the good, he did two things.
He built belief in himself as a genuine allrounder, as well as showed the West Indies, in the way only a captain can, they could beat anybody.
The resultant performance with the ball where Roston Chase bagged 8-60, restricting England to 246, completing a 381-run victory inside four days, was a sign of that belief.
Paul-Andre is the Managing Editor at SportsMax.tv. He comes to the role with almost 20 years of experience as journalist. That experience includes all facets of media. He began as a sports Journalist in 2001, quickly moving into radio, where he was an editor before becoming a news editor and then an entertainment editor with one of the biggest media houses in the Caribbean.
Cornwall looking for another big CPL season
With the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) set to begin in a matter of weeks, players like Rahkeem Cornwall have been looking at how to give themselves an advantage.
Cornwall is no different, with the big off-spinner hoping for a season like the one he had in 2019.
Known more as a bowling allrounder, last season Cornwall was immense with the bat for the St Lucia Zouks, scoring 254 runs in 10 matches, with a highest of 75.
“Obviously, it’s going to be different from the previous CPL where you have the crowd and so on, but at the end of the day cricket still remains the same. I would like to continue where I left off last year because I think I had a pretty good year in the CPL last year where I scored the most runs for the St. Lucia Zouks, and there is no doubt that I want to repeat that this year,” said Cornwall in an interview with the Antigua Observer.
According to Cornwall, players doing well is usually the result of hard work and he has no issue with putting in the effort that it takes to repeat that performance.
“I just have to put in the work and I think we have a couple of days or just over a week to get ready before the tournament, so I am sure I will be fine by then, and I will just keep putting the numbers on the board,” he said.
“As a professional, you have to know what you need to do to get yourself ready for a match. I think you just have to keep practising, and once all of the protocols [quarantine and testing] are over and you are out of isolation, then your mind would automatically switch back to cricket and you just have to know what you need to do in terms of your role for the team, and by then, hitting the 18th [August], you should be ready,” he said.'
Cornwall will again turn out for the St Lucia Zouks who will play their opening game against the Jamaica Tallawahs on August 19 at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy.
Final England Test was a learning experience – Cornwall
Many have questioned the inclusion of Rahkeem Cornwall in the final Test of the #raisethebat Series in Manchester, England after the West Indies were thoroughly beaten by a strong England showing with bat and ball.
Cornwall, who went wicketless throughout the game, still feels his inclusion had value.
According to the offspinner, on another occasion, going wicketless does not mean he bowled badly.
“I don’t feel too bad about my performance and maybe on a different day wickets would have come my way, but I didn’t get any wickets. I think I bowled pretty well. Opportunities came about but it was just not my day to get wickets,” said Cornwall.
Cornwall has not been deterred by his performance in the least and believes there is only better for him to get.
“Going forward I just think that I have to work on my game and make sure I can perform under every condition that I might be going to but I wouldn’t say it was a bad tour, I just have to move on and learn from it,” he said.
Zone disagrees with panel’s Gayle-Warner pairing for Ultimate T20 openers
A panel of experts has decided that a pairing of Christopher Henry Gayle and David Warner would represent the best openers the T20 game has ever seen.
According to Zaheer Clarke, statistician, Chris Taylor, cricket umpire and commentator and noted cricket commentator and journalist, Fazeer Mohammed, Gayle’s body of work over the course of his career in the T20 game made him the first name on any list of all-time greats in the format.
The panel were picking from a final six after 13 shortlisted players were whittled down on Wednesday.
The six who made the final were Gayle, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Aaron Finch, David Warner, and Brendon McCullum.
While Gayle was a shoo-in on all the panellists books, there was a little difficulty in picking who would partner him.
According to Fazeer Mohammed, Finch would make a good partner for the big left hander, while Taylor and Clarke felt that Warner would do more damage up front with the Universe Boss.
The panel’s decision counts for 40% of the overall vote on who makes the SportsMax Ultimate XI, while the SportsMax Zone, like an online voting audience, has a 30% stake in proceedings.
This means there are still some decisions to be made with Gayle, by virtue of bagging votes from the Zone and the panel being selected as one of two Ultimate XI T20 openers.
The uncertainty about who will make up the other part of the pairing lies in the fact that the SportsMax Zone did not agree with the panel on who should partner Gayle, instead going with India’s Sharma.
Gayle stands head and shoulders over every batsman to ever play the T20 game with 13,296 runs behind his name at a healthy average of 38.20 from 404 games. Gayle strikes at an incredible 146.94 and has a whopping 22 centuries and 82 half-centuries in the format.
Sharma, who the Zone has picked, from 328 games has 8,642 runs at an average of 32.24 and has scored six centuries and 60 half-centuries.
Warner has not played as many games as the two, but enjoys a 142.20 strike rate from his 280 games, and has scored 9,218 runs, inclusive of eight centuries and 75 half-centuries already.
The choice is tough and may come down to who you like, as Lance Whittaker says, he is a Sharma fan.
To make your choice regarding who makes the SportsMax Ultimate XI, click here. Maybe like George Davis, you think the Zone is crazy for not picking Warner. If you want to learn more about the players, you can click here.
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