Despite his side's 58-run defeat to Australia in the final of the tri-nation series in Barbados on Sunday, West Indies captain Jason Holder chose to focus on the gains made by the side, particularly performances from the top order batsmen.

Two of the four centuries struck in the tournament came from West Indies batsmen - Marlon Samuels scored 125 in a defeat against Australia, but Darren Bravo's crucial 102 helped the team rally from an early slide and knock South Africa out of the tournament in the last league match in Barbados on Friday. Both batsmen, however, were dismissed for 6 in the final, as West Indies failed to chase down 271.

West Indies remained at No. 8 on the ICC ODI rankings but their march to the final ensured that they opened up a five-point lead over Pakistan, who are placed ninth.

"Credit must go to the whole group," Holder said after the final. "A lot of people didn't expect us to get this far. We've put up some pretty good performances leading up to this final. And still in this final, we've got some things to shout about. It's just important that we keep improving. Improvement is the name of the game. We just have to keep building and moving our way up the rankings.

"We asked one of the top four batsmen to put up a big hand each time and go on and get a big score for the team. We got two hundreds in this series, from Marlon Samuels and Darren Bravo. Credit must go to them.

"I thought Kieron Pollard coming back into the West Indies team did a really good job, not only with the bat and the ball, but his presence in the dressing room, his experience counted for a lot. Things like that, we really need around our cricket. Hopefully we can have him in the dressing room going forward."

Holder admitted that his bowlers had let Australia get away with 20 to 30 runs more than they should have after pinning them down to 156 for 5 in the 31st over. Wicketkeeper Matthew Wade's crucial 57 pushed Australia to 270 for 9 before Mitchell Marsh and Josh Hazlewood cut through West Indies' batting, taking 3 for 32 and 5 for 50 respectively.

Holder also said that fast bowler Shannon Gabriel's absence in the end overs affected West Indies strategy. Gabriel dismissed Steven Smith and Glenn Maxwell in the space of five balls in the 31st over but had to leave the field due to injury after bowling seven overs.

"I felt we conceded 20-30 too many. We lost Shannon Gabriel as well, his overs at the end were crucial. With the bat, we fell away and didn't recover after a decent start. The wickets of Smith and Maxwell changed the game; credit to Shannon."