ST GEORGE'S, CANA:
DESPITE crashing to three heavy defeats in consecutive matches, West Indies' captain Carl Hooper still believes his wounded warriors can get off the ground and deliver the knockout punch to Shaun Pollock's South Africans, who hold a valuable 3-1 series lead.
West Indies now face a Herculean task of defeating the unrelenting South Africans in all three remaining matches in Barbados on Wednesday, Trinidad and Tobago (May 12) and St Vincent (May 16) to achieve an unlikely 4-3 triumph in the seven-game Cable and Wireless One Day International series.
"The important thing is to remember that we can still win the series. Even though it is tough on us, we've got to win three games," Hooper said after the Windies were humbled by eight wickets in the second of the back-to-back matches on Sunday.
"It's not beyond us. We've got to remain optimistic and hopefully we can turn things around in Barbados," added Hooper, who was more than ten minutes late for the toss of the coin with his opposite number Pollock in yesterday's match.
Hooper's men went under by 132 runs in Saturday's match and lost the Antigua game by eight wickets as well, after pulling off a last-ball victory in the opening game in Jamaica, eight days ago.
But Pollock is warning that his side will be unrelenting in the last three matches of the tour.
"Three games to go. We're looking forward to them and would like to end the tour on a good note," Pollock said.
Pollock also lauded his players for their disciplined bowling and batting.
"I think the guys did a really good job in the field. In the first over, one of the balls went over the top and I thought my decision to bowl first might back-fire," Pollock said.
"But everyone stuck to the task. We realised that it was going to be difficult batting second, and to keep them to 200 I thought was a superb effort.
"The guys batted very well to knock off a good score and it was nice for Boeta Dippenaar to come in and do well," Pollock remarked.
He noted that the strength of their side is reflected when "you have replacements who can come in and do the job".
"Injuries are going to occur, it's inevitable, so it's nice to see the guys on the fringes coming in and playing well," Pollock said.
South Africa went into the game without the services of top all-rounder Jacques Kallis (injured) while Dippenaar, having his first knock in the middle after coming in for the last three matches for the recuperating Neil McKenzie, scored a polished unbeaten 62.
