- Reuters
Lara ... We have to be positive and pick ourselves up for the next stage.

MUMBAI, India, CMC:

WEST INDIES captain Brian Lara put up a brave face and expressed hope that his team can rebound in their Champions Trophy bid after a crushing loss to Sri Lanka in the last game of the qualifying series yesterday evening.

The West Indies slumped to 80 all out - the third lowest total in the tournament's history - and plunged to a nine-wicket loss to Sri Lanka at the Brabourne Stadium.

"We have to be positive and pick ourselves for the next stage where all teams start afresh," Lara said after the game.

The result condemned West Indies to second place in qualifying and placed them in the seemingly much tougher Group A with world champions Australia, India, and England - in the preliminary competition of the ICC Champions Trophy.

Wavell Hinds (28) and Lara (13) were the highest scorers in a plethora of batting failures for the Caribbean side, who are defending the Champions Trophy they memorably won in September 2004.

Batting collapses

Aware that batting collapses have surfaced far too frequently in their run-up to the Champions Trophy, Lara declared that they must urgently fix the problem in order to stage a proper defence of their title.

"We have identified this problem ... in Malaysia we collapsed in a couple matches against Australia and India. It is something we have to address or else we are not going to last very long in this tournament," he said.

West Indies' brittle batting was again cruelly exposed, when pacer Farveez Maharoof collected six wickets for 14 runs from nine overs to establish a new record for the best bowling analysis in the Champions Trophy.

But Lara pointed to the last edition of the same tournament, where West Indies came out on top - beating England in the final - despite being an unfancied side.

"Last time no one gave us any chance, but we won the title. I feel we have the guys and the ingredients to do so again despite what happened today," he said.

Although his team fell for the lowest total ever at the Brabourne Stadium, Lara did not blame the pitch for the defeat.

"It was not the best wicket, but neither was it so bad that we should have been all out for less than 100. We did not bat well. I don't want to single out any one batsman," he said.

"We lost a wicket in the first over, and then kept losing them regularly, which put us under pressure. They all bowled well and most of the batsmen were out bowled or leg before. It was a good effort (by Sri Lanka's bowlers)," Lara said.