We gave away too many runs: Holder

Nelson (New Zealand), Feb 16 (IANS) West Indies captain Jason Holder Monday rued his choice of field setting for leaking too many runs in the middle overs to hand minnows Ireland an emphatic four-wicket victory.

The West Indies had set up a mammoth total of 304/7 in 50 overs which Ireland quite easily chased down with 25 balls to spare at the Saxton Oval here.

“We just need to be a bit more precise when we set fields. We are just giving away too many boundaries during the middle overs,” said Holder at the post-match presentation ceremony.

The 23-year-old added that the loss was a “tough” one to digest as they thought their total was defendable. However, they could not quite keep Ireland in check.

“It was a tough loss and obviously putting up 300 should have been enough but it wasn't today. They came and added impetus for us (Lendl Simmons and Darren Sammy) towards the end, but it wasn't enough. We tried to be better with our bowling at the Powerplay and the death overs but we weren't able to pull them back,” said Holder.

The skipper made a negligible contribution to the game, as he gave away 44 runs from nine overs without picking up a wicket.