Lara

LAHORE (CMC):

West Indies captain Brian Lara has called on his batsmen to lift their game, ahead of the third One-Day International against Pakistan at the Gadaffi Stadium today.

Lara told reporters yesterday that while his bowlers were a force to be reckoned with, the team had been let down by its batting in recent matches and this needed to be rectified.

"The fact that we played well in the second half of the innings in Faisalabad (second ODI), is nothing that is surprising to us," Lara said. "We just didn't get the runs on the board and I think that our bowlers are capable of keeping the best batting teams in the world limited. It's just an opportunity for us batters.

"It's been the trend every time we've lost a game and even for the last three months in the DLF Cup in Malaysia and in India for the one-day tournament (ICC Champions Trophy), it has been really and truly our batting (that has let us down) so we need to get that together."

Strength in reserves

He added: "There's no excuse with two of our main players being away in (Ramnaresh) Sarwan and (Dwayne) Bravo and even (Shivnarine) Chanderpaul missing in the last game. The strength of a team is in its reserves. We are going to look at that and try to come out tough tomorrow."

West Indies' batting capitulated meekly in the last game, crumbling for a paltry 151 all out off 49.5 overs. Windies bowlers then responded well, grabbing crucial wickets and throwing the match wide open before Pakistan crept home at 154 for eight in the 49th over.

Lara said the batsmen needed to adapt faster to the moving ball, to avoid repeating the mistakes of the last match.

"The ball is expected to swing around early on a fresh one-day pitch and it did that and we were behind the eight-ball from very early," Lara pointed out. "These things are expected in any form of the game so we didn't weather the storm well in the first game and we are going to try to adapt quicker in this match and in the remainder of the series."

Still hopeful

Although the first match was abandoned because of rain and the West Indies lost the second, Lara said he still believed his side could win the series.

"We knew from the start we could win this series. Even though we have lost one game, I still think we can win the series," he contended.