BRIDGETOWN, Barbados:

SHIVNARINE CHANDERPAUL, the Man of the Series, and victorious Australian skipper Ricky Ponting believe the West Indies are on the right track, despite losing their fourth straight Test series to the Aussies yesterday.

Ranked a lowly No. 8, the hosts pushed the world champions well into the fifth day of each of the three Tests but the scoreline at the end of the Digicel series read 2-0 for the tourists.

Still, Chanderpaul, who excelled, scoring 442 runs at an average of 147.33, said the young team would only grow from the experience.

Pretty well

"We were playing the No. 1 team in the world and I think we did pretty well," the Guyanese said. "Nobody expected us to go into the fifth day (of the Tests) but we did. We put up a good fight," the slight player known as 'Tiger' said.

Chanderpaul also said the team picked up some valuable lessons from their more seasoned foes.

"The toughness, the way the Aussies play their cricket - the killer instinct, going out there and wanting to finish the job - these are things the young players can learn from and go on and hopefully make themselves better," he said.

"There were periods when we messed up big time. We played some times four good days of cricket and then we slipped up for a period or two and the game went away from us," he said.

"Australia didn't let those opportunities go and capitalised on them. We have to learn from the mistakes we made and how Australia turned them into wins.

"If you look at the age of the guys, most of them are in their 20s, so the potential is there to get better and get back on top of world cricket.

"We have a bunch of young fellows and they are learning, but learning slowly. When I came into the team, I had a bunch of senior players around, so it was easier for me to learn from them. These guys are learning and we are trying to mould them, but at this level you need to learn fast."

ICC rating

Ponting said the Windies' ICC rating was probably not a fair grading of the current side.

"Their bowling is pretty good at the moment. You look around at most of the teams in the world and they are lacking a match-winning spin bowler," the Australian captain said. "I am sure the West Indies would love to have one of them in the side but their quicks did a good job throughout the series and (Dwayne) Bravo is a world-class all-rounder.

"They had (Gayle) out for the majority of the series but obviously (Ramnaresh) Sarwan and Chanderpaul are terrific players. I think the West Indies are like some other teams, if they get a couple on injuries they don't have the depth of an Australia or South Africa or those types of sides," he said.

"When you are not winning Test matches, it's hard when you get into a situation like today, to pull those games out of the fire - it's a tough thing when you are not winning to believe you can do it.

"They probably played better cricket in this series than their No. 8 ranking. You could stack their side up against most others and expect them to be competitive. They have been very competitive in these three games, probably without having an opportunity to win any of them.

"I am sure in the coming couple of years they will win their share of Test matches."