WI outplayed world champs, says Lara

ST. GEORGE’S: West Indies captain Brian Lara, buoyed by his team’s fabulous nine-wicket whipping of world champions Australia in Sunday’s seventh and final Cable and Wireless One-Day International (ODI), says his team proved again that they can be competitive. Lara also praised the batting of recalled opener Wavell Hinds who once again masterminded the Windies victory with an unbeaten 103 which included three sixes and six fours. He said this victory has once again shown that the West Indies is still a competitive team. “We came to Grenada knowing that Australia at some point in time is going to try to play good cricket. They wouldn’t want to go home losing both matches so we played good cricket, better than the Australians played over the weekend and we deserved to win so I’m very happy,” Lara said.

“Man of the Series” Hinds, with his second consecutive hundred, Lara (75), and “Man of the Match” Chris Gayle (60), powered the West Indies to 249 for one off 43.3 overs, after Australia had totalled 247 for eight off 50 overs, with Darren Lehmann hitting 107, against Gayle (5-46). The West Indies handsomely won the last three matches in the ODI series to finish on a high note, and Australian captain Ricky Ponting was clearly disappointed, despite winning both the Test (3-1) and ODI (4-3) series. “It was a bit of a sour taste on a pretty good tour,” said Ponting. “We played excellent Test cricket in the first three Tests and we played pretty good one-day cricket in the first four and to go home having lost the last three is disappointing but I think there was a lot of positive coming out of the tour in both Tests and One-Day cricket for the Australian team. “This team doesn’t like losing so to lose three matches in a row will make everyone a bit keener to play better next time,” Ponting said. The Australians left for home yesterday  and following a short break will contest a Test and one-day series against minnows Bangladesh.