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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP

June 17, 2019

Jason Holder

Taunton, England, UK

Bangaldesh - 322/3 (41.3), West Indies - 321/8 (50)

Q. Five games gone now for you guys. Give us an assessment of where you feel you are now with regards to the semifinal qualification. It's looking tough, isn't it?
JASON HOLDER: Yeah, it's looking tough at this present moment, but it's not impossible. We have to play every game here now as a final. We've got to win every game left to give ourselves a really good chance. I'd go on obviously a little bit down to other teams or rely on other teams to help our result. But we've just got to control what we can and that's playing each game as a final.

Q. You bowled a lot of short balls and they got a lot of top edges, hit a lot into the gaps. On a normal day would you expect more of those to go to hand?
JASON HOLDER: I felt we missed a crucial chance there when Russell, bowling to Shakib, and the top edge (indiscernible) and Shannon should have gone in and taken a catch.

Yeah, a few top edges didn't go our way, probably. And we didn't help ourselves in the field as well.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
JASON HOLDER: I felt that at the halfway we were still a few short. Probably, I recon, a par score on this on this wicket, with the dimensions of the ground, probably 360, 365, maybe 370. And we were well short of that.

We knew up front in the first ten overs we had to really knuckle down and get through that period. That probably was the toughest period of the innings. But I think we should have been able to rotate the strike a little better and find the boundary a little bit with a little more freedom.

Q. How do you feel about Shai's knock? And any weaknesses you saw?
JASON HOLDER: You know, it was good that he went deep but probably we could have asked him to show a little bit more intent. Having said that we still were losing wickets at crucial ends of the stages. We needed one of the top four players to go through. Yeah, he got down to the end, but unfortunately it wasn't enough today.

Q. Jason, you obviously are defending a total of 322, a big total, and difficult one for Bangladesh to chase. Looking back on your bowling, are there any regrets with regards to line and length and things like that. There were a lot of short balls that Bangladesh seemed to deal with quite comfortably?
JASON HOLDER: I still think we were a few runs short. If you look at the contents of the game and the way Bangladesh scored in comparison to what we did, I think we probably, arguably roughly 40, 50 short.

Having said that, with 321 on the board, we still go out there, fight and make a game of it. We needed new ball wickets. We didn't get it today. They batted well. Shakib came in really well. And Liton Das played really well. Gotta give them credit.

Q. Obviously there was no front line spinner today. Did that come back to haunt you at all? Or do you think the quick bowlers could have done their job?
JASON HOLDER: Nah, I think the quick bowlers could have done their job. If you look at their spinners, they didn't cause much a threat. Shakib is the only one, I think, who got wickets. Mehedi struggled. We pretty much scored off him freely. So, no regrets there.

Q. You've said every game from now is a final. You've got India coming up. They seem to be the best team in the tournament so far. How do you assess that one?
JASON HOLDER: They're a good team. But if we want to get through into the semifinals, we've got to play good cricket. We've got to beat the best games. India obviously is going to be a tough game. We've got New Zealand as well.

We've got to back ourselves and be a lot more clinical with the ball, and still go a lot further with the bat. As I said before, I think we're still a few runs short when we bat. I don't think we've got a batsman with a centuries yet. These are things that we need to correct.

Q. Do you think you've got the balance right? Clearly made a change, brought in the extra batsman for a bowler?
JASON HOLDER: In hindsight you could sit here and ponder on a few things. No, I think the balance was not an issue today. As I said, we didn't execute. Execution for me today was the issue. And it paid off, hurt us in the end. Sorry.

Q. Russell, how do you feel about his heart? Clearly in discomfort and he tried bowling, fielding out there?
JASON HOLDER: He gave his all. He gave his all. Yeah, I can't say much more about his effort. He gave his all.

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