By Anthony Foster, Freelance Reporter
WEST INDIES captain Brian Lara yesterday criticised his batsmen performances in their second Cable & Wireless one-day international loss against Australia at Sabina Park. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
WEST INDIES captain Brian Lara yesterday criticised his batsmen performances in their second Cable & Wireless one-day international loss against Australia at Sabina Park.
"We batted badly, Lara said. "Losing four wickets in the opening 15 overs was always going to put you on the backfoot.
"Australia won most of their matches in the World Cup bowling in the first 15 overs, getting majority of their opposition out. We need to look at that. Yes, we want to get runs but we also want to make sure we don't lose too many wickets," he added.
WAITING GAME
"From very early we had to play a waiting game," he pointed out. "Guys could not play their natural game. It was always going to be difficult."
Australian captain Ricky Ponting said after winning the opening game on Saturday, things would have been easier for his team.
"We played okay, Ponting said. "We were a lot more disciplined today but the fielding was a little bit scrappy. A couple of catches we normally take went down.
"We got early wickets that put them on the backfoot and then the spinners in the middle did a pretty good job before Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee finished off very well."
Lara and West Indies management surprised all on Saturday when they used Ricardo Powell to open with Chris Gayle. Yesterday, Devon Smith came to the wicket with Gayle.
"The normal opening pair is Smith and Gayle, so Saturday when we were chasing 270 we saw the need to try and get someone out there to give us a good start," Lara said of the team's decision to open with Powell.
"Smith is an opening batsman and we expect as an opener he would first see off the new ball and try and get a good total up there. That did not happen today," the captain said, referring to yesterday's second match.
"First and foremost, this has always been a plan and I suppose the plan in most teams. One of the top three batsman will have to go on and get a big score. We have to try to bat through. We did not do that in the first match and we definitely did not do that in the second.
"We got to make sure we find the right combination to do so. That is of most importance. We are going to keep searching for that particular combination," the West Indies captain added.
REPUTATION
"He (Powell) is one of the biggest hitters in world cricket, he got a reputation, a strike rate of a 100+ so he is capable of doing that, but most teams' top three batsmen control. They are the leading scorers in their team. We need to find that balance. We need to find that individual and those people who can do that for us," Lara pointed out.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who is out for this series and possibly the Sri Lanka tour, along with fast bowler Jermaine Lawson, who will not travel to St. Lucia for the third one-dayer, were identified as big blows to the team by Lara.
Young West Indian keeper Carlton Baugh looks back to see his middle stump missing after being clean bowled by Australian paceman Glenn McGrath yesterday at Sabina Park.
