HINDS
AUCKLAND, New Zealand, CMC:
WAVELL HINDS, one of two West Indian players starting the journey back to the Caribbean today, is hopeful that the Test squad can build on the three-wicket victory over New Zealand in Saturday's final One-Day International of the five-match series.
"The dressing room is a very happy one right now and the guys are keyed up," said Hinds in the immediate aftermath of the team's first win on the tour.
"They are now looking forward to going in the nets and getting the practice sessions working properly. I'll be looking on from home and hoping that we can come out victorious."
Hinds, who heads out of Auckland with Deighton Butler, was full of praise for Denesh Ramdin's role in reaching the target of 234 with two balls to spare.
"He came in and showed how level-headed he is as a youngster and played a fantastic innings for us," said the 28-year-old Jamaican in reflecting on the wicketkeeper-batsman's quickfire 38 off 26 balls that put the West Indies back on course for a result that denied the Black Caps a 5-0 sweep of the series.
GOOD RESULT
"I made up my mind to be there at the end whatever the outcome. As it turned out, it was a win and that's a very good result for our team."
Hinds, who hit the winning run to finish unbeaten on 40, noted that it is important for the squad to recognise where they are going wrong.
"It's not a nice feeling to be losing, but our first task as cricketers is to acknowledge our weaknesses and mistakes and try and correct them," he explained.
"For the series, we have missed out on a couple of games. It is a case of thinking through situations more than anything else and we have failed in that capacity, so we brought it home today and the challenge now is to build on this for the Test series."
"Man of the Match" Dwayne Smith stressed on the desire of the team to avoid the embarrassment of a whitewash.
"We really came out today and decided that we have to win at least one game," said the man whose career-best ODI figures of five for 45 went a long way towards restricting New Zealand's total to 233 all out at Eden Park.
