King's fielding regime proves superior

Bennett King, the West Indies coach, has brought a change in one vital area of his team's game: fielding. King knows the importance of saving every run and never misses the opportunity to stress the importance that fact to his boys.

On the eve of his team's third game in the IndianOil tri-series in Dambulla, King was rounding off the practice session with the fielding drills. Hitting the ball low, he made the players dive forward to take the catches. Tino Best, always the livewire was in his own world when he failed to stop the ball and didn't even attempt to show any intention to bend or dive forward. An infuriated King, unimpressed, shouted at the staring Best, "You can't dive. Does that mean you will allow a four on the ground?" A man never short for words, this time Best was speechless. The arrogant pupil had been rapped on his knuckles and for the rest of the session an attentive Best made sure not to commit any further mistakes.

King's discipline was bearing fruits. It was seen on Saturday evening when the Windies fielders threw themselves at everything and managed to overwhelm the favourites Sri Lanka in the end. Omari Banks, though he dropped two catches, agreed that King's fielding lessons were good. "Bennett has been working hard on the fielding aspect and expects us to give our best when we go out field so its good to see that the guys showed the same courage and commitment we show during practice."

Despite not having their regular captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul while defending their target, the young Caribbeans, led by their stand-in skipper Sylvester Joseph, showed enough passion to keep the pressure lid tight over the Lankans. The result was their first victory on this tour of Sri Lanka and also the first in the tri-series. This was a much-needed win for the depleted Caribbean side who had lost most of its top players in the endorsement imbroglio.

Joseph, who top-scored for the Windies with 58 thought the people in the Caribbean would be happy for the efforts put into this victory. "It means a lot. We had been struggling with the top order throughout the tour. Our bowlers were doing the job but we were failing with the bat and we didn't stick to our plan and didn't have wickets in the end. We applied ourselves and it worked."

With the absence of the regular stars, people like Joseph knew they had enough opportunities to prove their worth. But time and again they fell way short of the mark. "The situation is very difficult when you play a second-string team and your top players, who have been doing well for the past few years, are not around and we miss them. But it is an opportunity for us to show that we are capable and we have shown that we have the potential and we continue to work hard we can become a good team to reckon with."

Joseph believed the change in the batting order was one of the most important catalysts in the top order clicking. West Indies top order had failed throughout this series, but today Chanderpaul opened the innings with Joseph and provided the much-required stability his young partners wanted. It worked. "He took control and took charge and we needed someone up there to really stick it out and he did that."

The Sri Lankan coach Tom Moody also acknowledged Chanderpaul's contribution. "West Indies batted well early on especially Chanderpaul, though unwell, lead from the front and got the momentum going and the rest of the players got that going. We pulled them back as they were on target for 250 through some good bowling and some good fielding in the latter stages."

Both Moody and Mahela Jayawardene, the stand-in captain, gave credit to the opposition for their hardwork but at the same time felt that the Sri Lankans paid for their mistakes. "We made it difficult with the position we put ourselves into by losing early wickets" was Moody's verdict while Jayawardene fell. "We were not complacent. West Indies bowled well especially Omari Banks but we created our own pressure by losing too many wickets."

Banks, who finished economically with figures of 2 for 24 in his 10 overs, said, "I was trying to just put the ball in the right areas and try and improve my length." That effort was enough to earh him his first Man-of-the-Match reward.

Alhough none of Sri Lanka's fast bowlers managed to take a wicket, Moody didn't seem worried. "The fast bowlers early on and beat the bat regularly and then we just lacked a little bit of consistency so its hard to maintain the pressure early on." Instead Moody was focussing on the positives of his first loss after taking over as the coach of the Lankan team.

"It's a timely wake-up call. The team has had a successful run in the Tests and the one-dayers up to date and today we played below par. But you can look at it in the positive way. Our batting needs to be looked at, as there is a lot of inconsistency at the top order. If the top order clicks then it means we not relying on some excellent partnerships down the order. In one-day cricket most of the games are won by the top order doing the hard work."

The focus now shifts to the crucial game tomorrow, the last of the league games of the series where West Indies play India. West Indies need to win that match if they have to make the final against Sri Lanka on Tuesday, next week. But they are not looking that far ahead. They just want to carry on today's good work to tomorrow. "We have worked really hard in the past weeks and it would be fitting if we can go out tomorrow and play positive and try to win to make to the final", said Joseph who would be wishing that his captain gets back healthy in time for Sunday's vital game.

Chanderpaul suffered a viral infection two days ago, but thought he was fine for the game and so he batted. But his condition worsened and he couldn't field. Windies' media manager, Imran Khan, said the team was concerned. "We will monitor the situation through the night and the decision will be taken in the morning. But it's a concern."

But the Windies can hope for the best and get some encouragement from Moody's words of praise for them. "The Windies, despite not having their full-strength side, have shown a lot of spirit. A youthful side that shows a lot of spirit carries a lot of weight and that is what we saw this evening."