SHAR­JAH–Cap­tain Ja­son Hold­er has urged his West In­dies side to "stay hun­gry" af­ter they broke a pro­longed slump to beat Pak­istan by five wick­ets in the third and fi­nal Test here yes­ter­day and post their first Test win in 19 months.

The all-rounder said the Windies had the mak­ings of a very good unit but stressed it was im­por­tant to build on the Shar­jah suc­cess and be­gin to pro­duce more con­sis­tent per­for­mances in the fu­ture.

Hold­er, who was pre­sid­ing over his first Test win, al­so called for the unit to be kept to­geth­er as he be­lieved they had the po­ten­tial to be­come a dom­i­nant Test force.

"This is a very good group of guys. We've shown glimpses that we can com­pete, we've shown glimpses we have what it takes to com­pete at this lev­el," said Hold­er, who turns 25 on Sat­ur­day.

"For us, it's just a mat­ter of con­sis­ten­cy. We mustn't get com­pla­cent, we have no rea­son to be com­pla­cent. One Test vic­to­ry by all means is not enough. It's a sit­u­a­tion where we have to stay hun­gry and that's some­thing I re­al­ly be­lieve we have in the group.

"Every­body is young, every­body is look­ing to make their mark on the in­ter­na­tion­al cir­cuit so every­body is hun­gry for suc­cess. And one thing I re­al­ly en­joy in this dress­ing room is that every­body is hap­py for each oth­er's suc­cess."

He con­tin­ued: "It's just a sit­u­a­tion where I think we need to stay to­geth­er, we need to be giv­en some time to­geth­er as a group, to gel, to un­der­stand one an­oth­er, to play some good sol­id crick­et.

"We've def­i­nite­ly shown it here, we've com­pet­ed against In­dia [ear­li­er this year], we had a good last few Test match­es in Aus­tralia [last year] so it's a sit­u­a­tion where we need to string to­geth­er con­sis­tent per­for­mances over an ex­tend­ed pe­ri­od of time.

"I have no doubt we will get back on the right track in or­der to take West In­dies crick­et back up to the top."

West In­dies com­plet­ed an em­phat­ic vic­to­ry at the Shar­jah Crick­et Sta­di­um when they eas­i­ly chased down a mod­est tar­get of 153.

They re­sumed the fi­nal day on 114 for five still re­quir­ing 39 runs for vic­to­ry but open­er Kraigg Brath­waite and wick­et­keep­er/bats­man Shane Dowrich both stroked 60 not out in stretch­ing their overnight un­bro­ken sixth wick­et stand to 87, to rule out any chance of de­feat.

Hold­er said that af­ter loss­es in the first Test in Dubai and the sec­ond Test in Abu Dhabi, he was proud of the way West In­dies had re­bound­ed to win here.

"If I could sum up my feel­ings right now in one word I'd just say proud. Proud of the char­ac­ter which the guys showed, proud of the fight they showed, on the back of a lot of crit­i­cism here and there," he ex­plained.

"It's been a tough year and for the guys to come out in this last Test match and per­form the way they did–and not on­ly this Test match. I thought we were com­pet­i­tive the en­tire se­ries and just to show that com­mit­ment, that will pow­er, that nev­er-say-die at­ti­tude, it's re­al­ly, re­al­ly com­mend­able and makes me feel re­al­ly proud."

He added: "One Test match vic­to­ry does not make us a world-beat­ing side but it's just a sit­u­a­tion where we've shown peo­ple we can do it. We've com­pet­ed with Pak­istan through­out this en­tire se­ries.

"We fell short in Dubai, I thought we were ba­si­cal­ly out­played in Abu Dhabi but still man­aged to come up with one of the high­est fourth in­nings to­tals there in that Test match and to come here now and just fin­ish an ac­tu­al game on the win­ning side is just a won­der­ful feel­ing."

Seam­er Hold­er played a piv­otal role in the vic­to­ry, com­ing up with his maid­en ca­reer Test five-wick­et haul to help bun­dle Pak­istan out for 208 in their sec­ond in­nings, and put the Windies in com­mand.He said the per­for­mance was an in­spir­ing per­son­al achieve­ment.

"Play­ing crick­et for West In­dies is some­thing I al­ways dreamt of do­ing and I'm here to­day play­ing crick­et for West In­dies and to be able to win a Test match–win any crick­et game for West In­dies–means a lot to me per­son­al­ly," he not­ed.

"But to be a big fac­tor in terms of con­tribut­ing to the team win is ob­vi­ous­ly a heart­en­ing feel­ing for me and one which I re­al­ly, re­al­ly take to heart and will go a long way for me go­ing for­ward in the fu­ture." (CMC)