"One Of Our Best Victories": Jason Holder Delighted With Windies Win Over England In Southampton Test

"One of our best victories, started off Holder in the post-match presentation. "Blackwood was outstanding. Disappointing to see him get out on 95 but that's how he plays. Jermaine always tries and never short on effort, and today was his big moment."

West Indies skipper Jason Holder on Sunday expressed his sheer delight on the West Indies winning the series opener of the 3-match Test series against England by 4 wickets at the Ageas Oval in Southampton. Holder described the win as one of the best in West Indies Test history as The Windies beat Stokes-hemmed England by 4 wickets in the first Test to take a 1-0 lead in the series. The victory was a historic win for the Caribbean nation as it also marked the first win by any team in the Covid-19 era. The Southampton Test had marked the resumption of international cricket after a long gap of 117-days and was played under the Bio Secure environment, with players taking all necessary precaution over social distancing. "One of our best victories, started off Holder in the post-match presentation. "Blackwood was outstanding. Disappointing to see him get out on 95 but that's how he plays. Jermaine always tries and never short on effort, and today was his big moment." Chasing a 200 target on the final Day of the Test, the Windies were in a spot of bother early in their innings as they lost Brooks and Hope in quick succession. However, Jermaine Blackwood was resilient in his innings of 95 and stitched partnerships with Roston Chase and Shane Dowrich to help Windies steer towards the target. Holder also lauded the efforts of his bowlers to help his team clean up England for 331 in their second innings on a pitch which did not offer much resistance to the seamers on Day 4.Shannon Gabriel and Alzarri Joseph combined well to take five wickets in the final session and tilt the tide in favour of the visitors. "Yesterday was the best day I had in Test cricket. All the bowlers toiled hard yesterday, and it was a hard-fought day of Test cricket. I don't think any team knew. We had been sat at home doing nothing. We had time to prepare, but you never know. John took a blow today, but hopefully he will come through. We knew what was at stake yesterday evening. We knew we had 98 overs, and we had to go to 7PM. Alzarri and I thought we would bowl till 6:30 and the other two would take over. It would've been difficult to push for a win if we didn't bowl extremely well on a flat pitch," Holder said. The next Test will be played at the Old Trafford Ground in Manchester, starting July 16.