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Harper salutes tougher team 24 May 2002
Coach Roger Harper praised his West Indies players for the way they came from behind to beat India in the Cable & Wireless Series. "Full credit goes to the players," he said after the series-clinching victory in the fifth Test yesterday. "After the second Test, when we lost a Test we really should have won, we showed great resilience and bounced back a lot harder than the Indians expected in Barbados." "We blew them away there and came to Jamaica determined to clinch the series, which we did," he added. "The fact is that, after losing that Test in Trinidad, we didn't allow our heads to go down," he said. "We became more focused and more determined to really play the cricket we know we're capable of playing and win the series." Harper echoed captain Carl Hooper's opinion that the team still had some way to go to reach full potential. "We're not there yet but we're moving in the right direction," he said. "The guys have now played a bit of cricket, have suffered on tours and now understand exactly what they need to be doing in order to be competitive more consistently." India's captain Saurav Ganguly put his finger on why his side lost. "We lost the series in our heads rather than anywhere else," he said. "We do not lack ability but there has got to be something in our minds that makes us lose overseas crunch games like this. "If we were a poor team abroad we wouldn't have won matches in Bulawayo, Kandy and here in Trinidad. The problem lies somewhere else. "We need to give something extra in crunch situations. That's what makes a good team. Our nine straight losses in One-Day finals also suggest a similar trend." The left-hander said the West Indies were better in Barbados [where the West Indies won by ten wickets] and admitted the visitors were again outplayed in Jamaica. "The foreign conditions were not the problem. We just did not bat well on a good wicket at Barbados, where we only needed to see off the first ten overs when the ball was moving." Coach John Wright said he was disappointed by the team's inability to rise to the occasion. "We were coming into a decider and everyone was aware of that," the former New Zealand captain said. "When you're playing in foreign conditions, it's not easy to win a series and you need to up your standard." © Barbados Nation
Source: The Barbados Nation Editorial comments can be sent to The Barbados Nation at nationnews@sunbeach.net |
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