Lara wants no let-up against England
Thursday, July 1, 2004
LEEDS, England (AFP): West Indies captain
Brian Lara has told his side to concentrate on the job in hand when they face
England in their NatWest Series day/night one-day international at Headingley
here Thursday. On Sunday, Lara's men beat
England by seven wickets at Trent Bridge. And on Tuesday, England suffered
another batting collapse and another seven-wicket defeat, against New Zealand,
at the Riverside. Those results, the only two
positive outcomes in a rain-marred triangular tournament, have left England
with only a slim chance of qualifying for the July 10 final at Lord's.
But Lara, whose side have played two games to England and New Zealand's three
apiece, said overtaking the table-topping Kiwis rather than eliminating the
hosts was the main priority. "I am quite
happy with the start but if you look at the table New Zealand is ahead so we
need to win tomorrow (Thursday) to make sure we go back to the top," master
batsman Lara said Wednesday. "This game is
still in the early stages of the tournament and we will be looking at it as a
must-win situation for us and leave it at that," the 35-year-old left-hander
added. "Even then if England were to win
their remaining matches after tomorrow there would be a slim chance they could
still get in. "But that is not our worry: our
worry is that we win early up so we make sure we are in the final and give
ourselves time to prepare during the remaining matches."
Lara, who in April regained the world record for the highest individual Test
score with 400 not out against England in Antigua, is only one of four players
in the West Indies squad who is older than 25.
And he explained that together with coach Gus Logie, the former West Indies
batsman, the importance of adjusting to English conditions, where the ball
moves more sharply in the air and off the pitch than in other leading cricket
nations, was something they had been trying to impress upon a fledgling squad.
"It is not the Caribbean or the subcontinent where even after scoring 300 you
are scared of the opposition still. "You need
to consolidate as much as possible and build an innings in these conditions
because you never know what can happen in the last 15 overs: you can score at
four runs an over and then all of a sudden you can find yourself at nearly
six. "It all depends on how you do in your
early overs. England have not allowed themselves the opportunity to use that
and we are not going to make the same mistakes.
"At Nottingham we had to tough it out for the first 15 overs and we benefited
later in the game, so we were able to get that extra point," explained Lara,
whose team bowled out England for 147 - a performance topped by New Zealand on
Tuesday when they skittled out the hosts for an even worse 101.
But Lara said he expected England, on captain Michael Vaughan's home ground,
to bounce back even though conditions at Headingley tend to favour the seamers,
especially if there is cloud cover. “They
(England) have batted first on both occasions and the conditions were helpful
to the bowlers," Lara said. "We know they are
very capable of playing well, they are in familiar conditions so if anyone is
going to adapt quickly it is the home team," added Lara, who in 1994 while
playing for English county Warwickshire set a world record first-class score
of 501 not out. West Indies are set to field
the same team that appeared in both Saturday's no-result washout against New
Zealand and then beat England.
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