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'We're trying to build more matchwinners' - Lara

Back in the side after a match off to rest a knee injury, Brian Lara singled out his side's ability to capture seven Indian wickets for 36 runs as the turning point of their three-wicket win at Chennai



'I was happy to make a contribution. It was important that I play a supporting role and try and stay there till the end' - Lara © AFP
Back in the side after a match off to rest a knee injury, Brian Lara singled out his side's ability to capture seven Indian wickets for 36 runs as the turning point of their three-wicket win at Chennai. His 88-ball 83 having played a crucial hand itself, Lara admitted he was just glad he provided a steady hand for Marlon Samuels, the Man of the Match.
"Most definitely, that's where we gained momentum, in the last 15 overs," he told reporters after the game. "At one point, it looked like it would be 400 we'd have to chase, but we did well to peg India back to 260. At the break we talked about it. We had to continue that momentum; we couldn't go back and search for a start. The likes of Devon Smith and Marlon Samuels looked very confident and the scoring rate was above a run-a-ball for some time, but we played very well and that's where we wrested the game from India."
Against the spinners, Lara was lethal, using his feet well and deft when working them around the corner. The sweep, in particular, was his best shot of the day. As he himself put it, no spinner really posed a threat. "I normally play Anil Kumble quite well, and I don't think I have much of a problem against him. We knew that he was going to be one of their trump cards, and we batted well against him. Most importantly, the pitch was a good one-day one."
Lara's stylish innings, every run cheered by a spontaneous Chennai crowd, was pivotal in every sense of the word. But he preferred to give credit to Samuels. "I was happy to make a contribution. It was important that I play a supporting role and try and stay there till the end. Unfortunately, I didn't, but I was quite happy to get some runs finally.
"The last two wins we've had, Samuels was the top performer with the bat. That's something very good for us. We're trying to build a lot more matchwinners in the team. Hopefully we can get a lot more out of Marlon, I think it's very important. He knows where his game is at the moment. We just have to hope and pray that things work out for him."
Lara also felt the win was sweeter given that West Indies had rested the in-form Shivnarine Chanderpaul. "Definitely, but we can't depend on any one person. We do appreciate the fact that Chanderpaul is in form, but he had a slight pain in his knee and we preferred to rest him," he said. "We're not going to win the World Cup on the likes of Chanderpaul and [Chris] Gayle alone, or a [Ramnaresh] Sarwan. As I said, we need more guys performing at the top level. It was Samuels today; hopefully it'll be someone else on Wednesday."
Lastly, Lara believed his side had wrested some of the momentum from India. "I knew for a fact that we were in the series. I thought we played very well," he said. "Not many teams come to India and take the game into the 49th or 50th over every single time, so I was very proud of the guys even though we were 0-2 down. I knew we were just around the corner from a win. Hopefully we're picking up some momentum now. We've got one game left, and then the World Cup, so this is a very crucial game for us in Baroda."

Jamie Alter is editorial assistant of Cricinfo