da betsul： Though it ended badly, with a 127-run hammering in Australian hands, BrianLara was fairly satisfied with West Indies efforts over the past fortnight
Dileep Premachandran in Kuala Lumpur24-Sep-2006
Brian Lara believes that West Indies will be a force to reckon with in India for the Champions Trophy © AFP
Though it ended badly, with a 127-run hammering in Australian hands, BrianLara was fairly satisfied with West Indies efforts over the pastfortnight. And though they have to pre-qualify to defend their ChampionsTrophy crown, Lara was confident that those three matches would help theircause before they came up against the big boys.”I thought in the first half of the game, in the field, the guys workedreally hard,” said Lara, when asked for his thoughts on the match.”Unfortunately, we didn’t get things going in the second half. We lost toomany wickets early on, and put a lot of pressure on ourselves. We havecrumbled in the past in this tournament, and it happened again this timefrom the beginning.”Getting to the final was a plus. We’ve got a week in Malaysia beforegetting to the ICC [Champions Trophy], and we’re going to be trying ourbest there. We are the defending champions and we have to go into that full ofbottle, full of zest, and do ourselves proud.”Lara reckoned that the format might even play into West Indian hands. “Isee it as a good way of going into the tournament,” he said. “Australia,England, and Pakistan will arrive for their first game, but we willalready have had three games going in. That’s a slight plus.”Qualifying for the final here, ahead of a higher-ranked Indian team, wascause for satisfaction. “I do feel that being second-best against twoteams rated higher than us was a good effort,” he said. “I still haveconfidence in the guys, and it’s just a question of working on thephysical, mental, and technical aspects of our game.”It also pleased him that West Indies beat both Australia and India duringthe fortnight even with some players patently out of form. “Some guys arelimited in their skills, and they want to work and enhance their game asmuch as possible,” he said. “We have two or three coaches. We’ve gottrainers, physios, and everyone trying to gel together and ensure not onlythat we win tournaments, but that we get better.”Despite a brittle middle order, Lara was optimistic when asked whatpositives he took from the tournament. “I think Dwayne Smith – we justneed to get his batting together,” he said. “You can see he’s apower-hitter, but we need to get him to spend more time in the middle. Ithink Jerome Taylor improved as the tournament progressed. Chris Gayle hada pretty good tournament. We’ve got five or six in and around form. Thereare other players we have to massage and get together. I still believe inthem.”There was also no fuss over his own dismissal, given out caught after thebat had brushed the pad. “Of course I was disappointed to get out, but thesethings happen,” he said. And though he trudged back slowly, Lara suggestedthat he certainly hadn’t been angling for a recall to the middle. “Whenthe umpire gives me out, I’m not going to go back,” he said, perhapsreferring to the Sachin Tendulkar incident on Friday evening.They may have come up well short today, but on placid Indian pitches withlightning fast outfields, the West Indian batting remains capable ofshocking anyone. And if they can get Corey Collymore fit and into rhythm,they’ll be dangerous floaters in a draw that has several teams strugglingfor a semblance of form.