Bravo pleased with perfect slower ball

“We all know that Dwayne Bravo has a lot of variety in terms of bowling,” the 22-year old said after his fine all-round performance helped West Indies take an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the five-match series on Friday.

“It (slower ball) takes a lot of practice. I work hard on it in the nets. I bowl it a lot at Chris Gayle because he is one of the better batsmen in the team in terms of getting the ball off the park and I think once he gets trouble in the nets with it obviously when it comes to game time, it will be natural for me.”

He added: “I think the Indians were not quite aware of it and I think I used it at the right time.”

With the Windies needing to win Friday’s fourth ODI to take the series, Bravo turned in an outstanding performance to help the side pull off a commanding six-wicket win at the Queen’s Park Oval.

Using the slower ball with telling effect, the right-arm medium pacer grabbed three for 32 to help restrict India to a moderate 217 for six off 50 overs and then returned to score a solid unbeaten 61 from 62 balls, to steer West Indies to 218 for four off 44 overs.

“Last night in the team meeting, the skipper (Brian Lara) said that Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, they had all played good innings in previous games and it was up to us for someone to come up special in this game,” Bravo explained.

“This was the real game, this was the game that really counted, and all of us were looking forward to it and is nice to know that here in Trinidad and Tobago, my home ground in front of my fans, I think it was good for me to come up with something good.”

Bravo admitted despite his bowling form, he was under some pressure to perform with the bat but had not found the right situations in which to score runs.

“The shorter version of the game requires quick runs and the number I was going in to bat as well (in the series), the team really needed runs quickly, they needed to score at seven and six runs an over and I don’t think that is my game,” Bravo pointed out.

“My game is coming in, getting a start and building and I think I did that today (Friday). Coming in at number 5, I thought I got a lot of overs and that is where I got to play myself in and that’s where I am comfortable.”

The final ODI of the series will be played on Sunday at Queen’s Park Oval.