``I thought our batting in the second innings was poor and we've got to improve in that area,'' the West Indies captain said after his team's defeat by South Africa by four wickets here yesterday.

``The bowlers put us back into the game after scoring just 260 and I thought a second innings' 250 would have been enough, but 170 was definitely short of what I expected.''

Although he still had some hopes at the start of the last day that his bowlers could pull off a victory, Lara acknowledged that ``it was always going to be difficult.

``It was not the sort of track that the ball was all of a sudden keeping low or flying,'' he said. ``You've got to be patient but the runs were running out. We needed another 80 or 90 runs to have felt more comfortable and be in a winning position.''

Lara called the groin injury that handicapped Carl Hooper for most of the match ``a big blow''.

``In the first session of the first day of the Test match, the top all-rounder in the team was unable to bowl and unable to bat properly. That set us back a long way,'' he said.

A groin strain forced Hooper to bat with a runner for most of the first innings and all of the second when he went in at No.7 and restricted him to four speculative overs in the second innings.

But Lara made it plain he was not making excuses for the loss.

``That doesn't take away from the fact that South Africa played better cricket, especially in the second half of the game, but a fit Carl Hooper would definitely have made a big difference,'' he said.

The captain expected leg-spinner Rawl Lewis to play ``a very important part'' if the West Indies were to win on the final day.

``But there was not much spin in the pitch for Lewis,'' he said, explaining that he instructed him to bowl round the wicket late in his spell to buy time as the weather was seemingly closing in.

``He needs to bowl over the wicket. He needs to spin the ball past the right-handers, to get some edges or to leave some guys down the track,'' Lara added. ``That's where a leg-spinner must be looking to bowl.

``I came here expecting the leg-spinner to do well and, at this point, Rawl Lewis is the leg-spinner,'' he said.

``We're going to be working very hard with him in the nets and in the practice games before the next Test.''