Reuters
West Indies' Darren Powell takes part in a practice session at National Stadium in Karachi yesterday.

KARACHI, Pakistan

West Indies head coach Bennett King says the regional cricket team is becoming a dangerous force in international competition.

Commenting on the significance of today's final One-Day International against Pakistan in Karachi and the fact that the next time the Windies and Pakistan play it will be in the World Cup opening game, King said:

"I think that Brian (Lara) highlighted that we end the series on a good note with Pakistan being in our pool (in the World Cup) and them being the first match that we play.

"Certainly from our perspective, when we played Pakistan in the West Indies (in 2005) to where we are now, there has been a lot of improvements and we've shown that we're actually competitive and beginning to be a dangerous force in world cricket. 'Danger' is an interesting word because it says that we're not always at the top of our tree but certainly we're at the top of our tree more often than we have been in the past," King added.

The Windies have been on tour for some time and King says they have shown encouraging signs.

"We made the final of two competitions we were in and against high, prominent sides. I think that's very encouraging in the one day format."

Keep working

He added: "(In) the Test matches we need to keep working with the players to get them to execute for longer periods of time. They showed glimpses of what they can do in the Test arena but to play Test cricket you have to do it over five days and we're stretching it out longer than we have (in) previous tours and we're improving but we've still got work to do in consistency in the longer version of the game."

Looking forward to today's fifth and final ODI, King says they are aiming to win to level the series. Led by Marlon Samuels' even, unbeaten century, West Indies registered a comprehensive seven-wicket victory to reduce the series scoreline to 2-1 ahead of today's match. The first contest was rained out.

Good form

"This is a series drawing match, the players showed some good form the other night (in Multan) and we're looking forward to this match. We had a look at the (Karachi) wicket and it looks pretty flat. It doesn't look as if it's containing much moisture and might not aid the fast bowlers like it did in the previous match but we're looking forward to it."

He added: "We'll pick the side that we think is capable of winning and we will get out there and compete."

On the fitness of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, the coach said: "I'm pretty sure he will represent, no problems at all. He gets better as each day goes by."

The Australian coach also said he is looking forward to the upcoming series in India next month.

King said: "That Indian series is a very important one. It's our last competitive series before we go into the World Cup so we're actually excited about that one. We've shown some very good signs over the three months that we've been away and I think that we've proved that the longer we're together, the more we improve."