Whatever happens in the tri-series final, West Indies captain Jason Holder is proud of his men. He is proud that the No.8-ranked ODI side has reached the decider against the No.1-ranked Australia, knocking out the No.3-ranked South Africans. He is proud that his men beat Australia along the way, too, for the first time since 2012. He is proud that his players have fought through fitness concerns to get the job done.
Holder himself tweaked a hamstring in the loss to Australia in Barbados on Tuesday, but three days later ploughed through 10 overs straight against South Africa to collect 1 for 33 and help propel his team into the final. Shannon Gabriel picked up a groin niggle against South Africa but claimed three key wickets and is expected to play in the final. Denesh Ramdin hurt his shoulder earlier in the tournament but fought on.
Senior players have led from the front, Marlon Samuels with 92 and 125 against Australia, Darren Bravo with 102 against South Africa, Sunil Narine with eight wickets in the first two games, Kieron Pollard with a vital half-century in the knockout game against South Africa. And if West Indies can win on Sunday it will continue an excellent 2016 in which they lifted the World T20 trophy in India.
Darren Sammy was in charge of that particular outfit, but Holder is very much considered the man who will lead West Indies for the foreseeable future, and a series win under his guidance would be a significant boost.
It would also help strengthen their position on the ICC rankings. West Indies will not be part of the 2017 Champions Trophy as they missed qualification by slipping to ninth at the cut-off date. Qualification for the 2019 World Cup is the next big deadline, and to automatically qualify West Indies would need to still be inside the top eight on the ICC's rankings on September 30 next year. If they were to slip outside the top eight, they would have to play for World Cup qualification at a tournament in Bangladesh.
"I'm extremely proud," Holder said. "A lot of the guys have been struggling with some niggles and it's just good to see the guys fight through it. We know the importance of this series and the importance of moving up the rankings. We've been criticised in the past for being stuck at No.7 and No.8. It's important we keep making strides forward.
"All I can urge is that the guys stay together. If we can keep this core group of players together, maybe make one or two changes or additions as we go abroad on tours, but I think it's important for West Indies cricket that we keep a core group of players together and move forward with these guys, identify who we want to take forward and hopefully get the backing of everybody around us and keep these guys together."
Holder hopes for a stronger top-order performance in the final at Kensington Oval, after his men slipped to 21 for 4 against South Africa on Friday and 31 for 3 against Australia three days earlier. However, the way West Indies fought back from both situations to post totals of 280-plus earned the respect of Australia's captain Steven Smith, who knows Holder's men will never give up.
"I thought the West Indies scrapped really well," Smith said. "We had them 3 for 30 in our game and they managed to get 280, and then yesterday 4 for 20 and they got 280. They scrapped incredibly well to get that score and it's always going to be tough to chase.
"The bowlers did the job again as well. [Shannon] Gabriel was very good, he started well, he bowled good pace consistently and put the batters under pressure and took early wickets. It looked like a pretty polished performance by the West Indies."
Australia will likely field six of the same XI who triumphed in the World Cup final at the MCG last year - Smith, Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell, James Faulkner, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.
"We have another final and I think Australians really step up in finals," Smith said. "I think we haven't played our best cricket so far throughout this series. Having said that, all you want to do is make it to the final and from there you want to be playing your best cricket. We haven't had a polished performance yet, so it'd be nice to have that tomorrow."
One man the Australians will need to counter effectively is Samuels, who has struggled against them for a decade and a half but has been Man of the Match in his past two games against them in this series. After his 125 on Tuesday, Samuels observed that Australia's verbal approach towards him inspired him to stay in the middle as long as possible.
"He's obviously been in pretty good nick this series, particularly against us scoring a 90 and a hundred," Smith said. "We're going to have to get him out early if we want to have success tomorrow [...] Hopefully we can just let our actions do the talking."