Following the West Indies’ opening defeat to Australia in the first T20 International at Sabina Park, all-rounder Jason Holder says the team will be extra motivated as they aim to give Jamaican superstar Andre Russell a memorable farewell this evening at 7:00 pm.

In Russell’s penultimate game before international retirement, the Caribbean side fell short in their pursuit of victory on Sunday night as they went down by three wickets to the visitors.

The Windies set a respectable target of 190, thanks to half-centuries from Roston Chase and Shai Hope but the Aussies, led by their own pair of half-centuries from Cameron Green and Mitchell Owen, sealed the win with seven balls to spare.

Hard-hitting all-rounder Russell hopes to go out in style after only managing eight with the bat and giving up an expensive 37 runs from just two overs.

Holder is backing the team to deliver on the Jamaican’s final day in maroon and gold.

“It’d be great to send him off on a high and on a winning note, which I’m confident we can definitely do,” he said. “We’ve got confidence that we can turn it around, it’s just one game in the series and four left. It’s his final game and we just want to go out there and give everything for him.”

Sunday’s match attracted nearly a full house at Sabina Park, which has a capacity of 20,000, as fans came out to watch Russell and the team in a rare night T20 International match in Kingston.

The match will also be the final international match at the ground for 2025 and Holder says the Jamaican crowd deserves a good showing from the team.

“I think all of us were excited driving into the ground, we didn’t expect to see so many people here early [though] we expected a good crowd,” he said. “Sabina Park, the support here is always tremendous. It’s personally a favourite ground of mine, I enjoy coming and playing here, hearing the fans, coming out and supporting us.

“It’s a ground and a country with rich history of cricket in terms of their support and obviously their legends who have played the game, so we expect good crowd support, especially for Russell’s last game as well, and hopefully we can ride on that and have that as our 12th man.”

Though the Jamaican aspect has been the main highlight, there is a need for the Windies to improve on the form table.

They’ve yet to register a win during this tour, having lost the test series 3-0. The Daren Sammy-coached side has also registered just two wins from their last 14 T20 matches.

After Sunday’s defeat, Holder says greater efficiency will be needed if they are to overpower the Aussies.

“There was obviously a high boundary count for the Aussies so I think if we can limit that, maybe cut a few of the sixes to fours, maybe fours to twos or threes because that adds up in the end,” he said.

“Having said that, our execution could be better and if we execute better, those margins could come down a little bit. I don’t think we can really [criticise] the top order that much but if anything, the lower half can probably spend a few more balls before we start to hit but the situation of the game was one where we believed it was a 200-odd pitch and guys that we had to come in and go hard.”

Jamaicans Russell, Rovman Powell, and Brandon King will keep their place in the line-up as the Windies and Australia are likely to field unchanged teams for today’s match.

WEST INDIES SQUAD

Shai Hope (Captain)

Andre Russell

Rovman Powell

Roston Chase

Jason Holder

Jewel Andrew

Jediah Blades

Matthew Forde

Shimron Hetmyer

Akeal Hosein

Alzarri Joseph

Evin Lewis

Gudakesh Motie

Sherfane Rutherford

Romario Shepherd

West Indies’ Andre Russell in action against Australia during their first T20 International match, at Sabina Park in Kingston on Sunday. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)