Learning how to win

Staying in the hunt: 'This team is learning how to win' © Getty Images

Don't get carried away. Only the passage of time will tell if this is the start of the long-awaited turnaround in West Indies cricket or just a deceptively bright patch on an otherwise dark landscape.

But the signs are encouraging.

It is not just about being 2-1 up against India, the third-ranked team in one-day internationals, going into the final two matches today and Sunday at the Queen's Park Oval. That statistic can be easily overturned in the next 72 hours, such is the unpredictable nature of the shorter version of the game, exacerbated by two teams highly susceptible to bouts of inconsistency.

Yet it is significant that a squad previously incapable of coming out on the winning side of tight situations has prevailed in the last two matches against quality opponents. If nothing else, it emphasises how vital the mental aspect of the game is and puts into some perspective the value of the preceding series against Zimbabwe.

The young, inexperienced southern Africans hardly presented a serious challenge to the home side. However, in being able to enjoy the winning feeling for more than just a day or two, players who had grown uncomfortably familiar with defeat were at least able to enjoy a succession of victories and dominance over the opposition.

Even if it was a massive exaggeration to talk about the West Indies riding the crest of a wave heading into the first match, last week on Thursday at Sabina Park, the fact is, as everyone involved in competitive sport knows, a win is a win, whatever the quality of the opposition.

Just two months ago on the tour of New Zealand, the Caribbean side could not turn hugely advantageous positions in two ODIs and the first Test into victories. As competitive as the Black Caps are, especially in their own conditions, there can be no doubt that the West Indies' demise on those three occasions had more to do with their unfamiliarity with success than the excellence of the home team's fightbacks.

The storyline was just about the same in the opening match against the Indians, victory eluding their grasp at Sabina Park as opportunities literally slipped through their fingers, allowing Mohammad Kaif to hit the winning runs after Rahul Dravid's hundred had taken his team most of the way home.

Ironic, then, that it was the Indian captain's fielding error in the final over in St Kitts on Tuesday that helped to ease the West Indies to their target.

Slowly but surely, the West Indies are learning how to sustain the effort, to stay in the hunt and keep the pressure on worthy combatants in the belief, more than just the hope, that they will prevail.

More than anything else so far, the chain of events in the pulsating final moments of Saturday's second match in Kingston - when Chris Gayle urged Dwayne Bravo to bowl a slower ball after being struck for consecutive fours by Yuvraj Singh - revealed that the players are not just disinterested spectators to their own demise.

Some of them at least are thinking about the game and developing alternative strategies. Sometimes they will work, on other occasions they won't. But at least they seem to be doing much more on the field than just looking fashionable. It is very, very easy to read too much into this series so far. An inside-edge past leg stump by Yuvraj and India would have been 2-0 up after Jamaica. Two convincing performances by the visitors at the Oval and they would still win the series.

Yet it is impossible not to feel at least the gentle cooling breeze of optimism after enduring the sweltering, oppressive heat of defeat for such a long time. In his seventh year as an international cricketer, Ramnaresh Sarwan has just played two of the finest ODI innings of his career, responding positively to the persistent urgings of his captain, his coach and the rest of team management for him to make a habit of carrying the West Indies innings through to the finish.

The bowlers stuck manfully to the task in defending a modest total last Saturday, with the combination of Gayle and Marlon Samuels again proving effective on the lifeless Caribbean pitches.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul played second fiddle to Sarwan on Tuesday, but his half-century was no less significant in taking the West Indies to victory while again restating the point that he is getting back to his reliable best with the burdens of captaincy off his shoulders.

And what of the man who is back in charge? With just 54 runs from three innings in the series, it must be especially pleasing to Brian Lara for his team to be ahead at this stage.

In keeping with the gambler's instinct, his tactics can inspire and bewilder in almost equal measure. Yet his mere stature as one of the giants of the modern game obviously makes a difference to the home team and, it has to be said, the opposition.

It still doesn't solve the long-term captaincy issue, mind you. But that is another matter. If it seems excessive to be doing victory laps after success in two limited-over matches, keep in mind that this team is learning how to win.

Their celebrations are therefore a combination of relief and exultation.

The challenge now is to maintain such a high level of performance and competitiveness that the victory laps become redundant and that will take some time