LARA , WE CAN STILL WIN ONE DAY SERIES

West Indies captain Brian Lara says his Team can still win the one day series with Pakistan despite losing the second onedayer on Wednesday (After the ist one dayer was rained out) and he has one of the better ODI bowling attacks in the world.

Speaking with the media after his team lost to Pakistan in the second One Day International in Faisalabad, Lara laid the blame for defeat the batting and called on his charges to pull together to get it right for the final three games.

On the overall loss:

I think we do have something to take away. I really do truly believe that our bowling attack is one of the better ones in the world. What is important as far as the batters, every time we were defeated in the recent past it has been our batting so we'’re going to work on that as much as possible.

On whether specific batsmen are to be blamed:

Nobody is to blame, it's the first game, the fact of the matter is that we've got eleven guys out there and we didn't pull our weight (in the batting department) and we didn't give the bowlers the necessary runs needed to defend and we have to look at that.

We have three games left and as I said there are a lot of positives to take out of it (this loss). The bowlers in this situation with 151 runs bowled admirably and we've got to commend them for that. Now the batters know what the equation is -- put runs on the board and we're going to defend it.

On how disappointed he is with the loss:

I'm disappointed in the batting performance. I'm very happy with the way the guys went out there and fought in the second half of the game but we left a lot of runs out there. In the early part of the game we realized it wasn't a 250-275 pitch but we didn't show that commitment to get 225 which was definitely defendable on such a track.

On why Shivnarine Chanderpaul did not play:

He's got a slight injury to his left knee (sustained during the third Test match in Karachi) and it's really precautionary because we've got three games left (in this series) and we've been on the road for three months and we are going to ensure that we have the guys fully fit so hopefully he'll (Chanderpaul) be ready for the next match.

On whether his run out was the turning point of the game:

Every wicket that we lost was very crucial. In the first two overs we were two wickets down with few on the board so that in itself set us back a lot so it’s not just my run out but we lost wickets periodically throughout the game and we never had the opportunity to kick on at any point in time.

On whether he was confident that the West Indies can level the series:

I'm very sure of our ability to do so. You saw what we did today, 151 runs in a one day game, no team should come that close and we know now, the equation is right there in front of us. We need to get runs on the board and if we bowl first I’m almost sure that the bowlers are going to do a fantastic job but we still need to finish it off with the bat so we are going to be working and talking about that area (the batting).

 

WWW.WINDIESCRICKET.COM