West Indies' Dwayne Bravo (face to camera) celebrates with captain Brian Lara after taking the wicket of Pakistan's Rana Naved on Tuesday.

Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport Editor

THE WEST Indies have been working with basically this same unit for near two years now. Having got the start they wanted with a 54-run victory over Pakistan in the ICC Cricket World Cup's opening match at Sabina Park on Tuesday, team captain Brian Lara says they don't intend to stop doing what they have been doing.

The skipper admits that the vibe within the team has been swelling for some time and they are going to try to keep everything at the 'right level'.

"It's always been very good," Lara said of the camaraderie that exists among his happy bunch which put in a spectacular fielding display to restrict Pakistan to 187 all out in 47.2 overs as they chased the Windies' 241.

"A lot of people would look at negative occasions to mention these sort of things (team spirit) but I saw that the guys over the last 16 to 18 months have worked really hard," Lara said. "We were in Malaysia, we were in the ICC Champions Trophy and we got really far for a team that no one expected to.

"We had to qualify for actually the ICC Championships and that had to do with what's happening indoors and the spirit is good and the feeling is good and we're building up for this tournament and we're not going to break down at this time," he said.

Guys in good spirits

"This is time to ensure that everything is at the right level - guys are in good spirits with each other and with the fans and we're looking forward to the remainder of the tournament. So with this team, it's not like if it's newly found, it's been around for a long time."

Most of the players in the current squad played in back-to-back ICC Champions Trophy finals that the regional team won against England in 2005, then lost in the final to world champions Australia last year.

In Tuesday's match, the Windies struggled at the outset and Lara says his stroke-playing team will be looking to correct that with greater accumulation of runs at the top of the order because they are not styled on big hitting.

"We're a team that needs the scoring rate to be at a certain level from the start right through, maybe till the 45th over. We're not going to be sitting back waiting for a big explosion at the end," explained Lara.

"We've got players who are very creative and players who can hit the ball, we just want to make sure that we get up to the 45th over before we get a go ... but I think that as a team that doesn't have a lot of big hitters at the end, we need to be scoring better throughout the game so we are going to work on that."

Group D action continues today with Ireland facing Zimbabwe at Sabina Park, starting at 9:30 a.m. Pakistan will next play Ireland on Saturday, before the hosts West Indies return to action on Monday against Zimbabwe.

- Reuters