CENTURION, (Reuters):
WEST INDIES captain Carl Hooper was unimpressed by his frontline pace bowlers after they wilted under the pressure of Canada's flying start in the World Cup Group B match yesterday.
"We had our top three quicks playing in this game and yet the (Canada batting) rate was at seven or eight (runs per over) at the start with our bowling looking a little thin," Hooper told a news conference after his side's seven-wicket victory over one of the tournament minnows.
"I was very surprised they got so rattled against a team like Canada. Against seasoned Test players, you expect that sort of thing but, with respect to Canada and to John (Davison), not against a minor side.
Davison smashed the fastest century in World Cup history, reaching three figures in just 67 balls as Canada sped to 155 for one before collapsing to 202 all out.
"They got off to a real flyer and it was very disappointing for us after the first 20 overs," Hooper said. "I felt we came back fairly well, but today's game was a good wake-up call for us.
"You'd have thought we would have reacted a bit sooner to that initial onslaught."
The 32-year-old Davison treated the West Indies attack with disdain on a perfect batting pitch, eventually falling for 111 from 76 deliveries.
"If you asked me when I woke up this morning, the last thing I would have expected would be that a Canadian batsman would have batted like that," Hooper said. "I'd played against John before in Canada in a one-day competition but he never did anything with the bat.
"A lot of credit must be given to him for the way he played today."
West Indies, who have climbed to second place behind Sri Lanka in the Group B standings, take on Kenya and Sri Lanka in their final pool matches and Hooper is looking for further improvement.
"We definitely have some work to do in a few areas of our game," he said. "May be it was a good workout for us today but we have to learn to adapt better in certain situations.
"Our part-timer bowlers brought us back into the game pretty well but, in general, we have to be a lot more accurate with the ball - we have to pitch five or six balls in the right areas (each over)."
