Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Lara confident of Australia upset

World Cup Super 8, Antigua: West Indies v Australia
Match starts Tuesday 1430 BST

Brian Lara
Lara set a Test record with an epic 400 in Antigua in 2004
West Indies captain Brian Lara is confident his team can cause a surprise by beating Australia in the opening match of the Super 8s on Tuesday.

The Windies, who won all three of their group matches, beat Australia in a Champions Trophy match last year.

"I'm really comfortable with the guys in the field," Lara said. "We just need to up the ante a little with the bat."

Counterpart Ricky Ponting is well aware of potential pitfalls and said: "The West Indies are a very dangerous team."

When the Windies beat Australia in the group stages of the Champions Trophy in India last October, Lara smashed 71 and Runako Morton fired an unbeaten 90 in a total of 234-6.

Despite 92 from Adam Gilchrist, the West Indians won by 10 runs, with Jerome Taylor capturing 4-49.

They faced each other again in the final and Australia won by eight wickets.

"We're building to the point where we want to get onto the bigger games, the Australians, the South Africans, the biggest teams in the tournament," Lara said.

We are very consistent. So far we've performed really well. I'm proud of the guys
Brian Lara

After a surprisingly easy victory over Pakistan in the opening match of the World Cup, there followed more routine successes against Zimbabwe and Ireland for the hosts.

"I know it is a different class of opponents, but we've played well against them in the recent past and we expect to do well if we play to our strengths," said Lara.

"We are very consistent. So far we've performed really well. I'm proud of the guys."

Ponting's team are in ominous form, and having dismissed minnows Scotland and the Netherlands with typical ruthlessness, they recorded a crushing victory over the world's top-ranked one-day side South Africa.

Matthew Hayden fired the fastest World Cup century and Brad Hogg claimed three wickets, but Ponting insists that his team will not under-estimate Lara's team in Antigua.

"They are on home soil, they should know these conditions very well and they have great crowd support from all over the Caribbean," said Ponting.

"But it starts now. Every step you take in this tournament becomes more and more exciting."


West Indies (from): B Lara (captain), I Bradshaw, D Bravo, S Chanderpaul, C Collymore, C Gayle, K Pollard, D Powell, D Ramdin, M Samuels, R Sarwan, L Simmons, Devon Smith, Dwayne Smith, J Taylor.

Australia (from): R Ponting (capt), A Gilchrist, N Bracken, M Clarke, B Haddin, M Hayden, B Hodge, B Hogg, M Hussey, M Johnson, S Clark, G McGrath, A Symonds, S Tait, S Watson.

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