TAUNTON: Jason Holder conceded on Monday the West Indies face a tough task to reach the World Cup semi-finals after their dismal seven-wicket defeat against Bangladesh.

Holder’s side fell victim to the second highest run chase in World Cup history as Bangladesh reached 322-3 with 8.3 overs to spare at Taunton.

It was a bitter pill to swallow for Holder after they had posted a solid 321-8, only to implode with a combination of woeful fielding and sloppy bowling.

The West Indies have lost three of their five matches and, with four games left, captain Holder conceded there is only a slim chance they can make the semi-finals in the 10-team tournament.

“It’s looking tough at this present moment, but it’s not impossible. We have to play every game here now as a final,” Holder said. “We’ve got to win every game left to give ourselves a really good chance.”

New Zealand and India, both in fine form, are the West Indies’ next two opponents and they must beat both to remain in contention.

“If we want to go through into the semi-finals we’ve got to beat the best teams,” Holder said. “We’ve got to back ourselves and be more clinical with the ball. A few top edges didn’t go our way, but we didn’t help ourselves as well. We’ve also got to score more runs because we haven’t got a batsman with a hundred yet.

“I thought with the pitch dimensions we could have got 365-375 but we were well short, 40 or 50 runs.“

Meanwhile, West Indies assistant coach Roddy Estwick has warned his side the time for excuses is over after defeat to Bangladesh left their World Cup hopes hanging by a thread.

The Caribbean team started their campaign in England and Wales in impressive style, beating Pakistan by seven wickets but have since lost to Australia, England and Bangladesh.

With games to come against fancied New Zealand and Virat Kohli’s powerful India, the West Indies’ chances of progressing to the semi-finals look bleak.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2019