By Tony Becca - On The Boundary 
FOR ALL those who believe that it will not be long before the West Indies are back in the company of the best, Sunday's victory over Australia in the Cable & Wireless one-day series was a happy occasion.
In a wonderful performance, the West Indies, parading some exciting strokeplay, some reasonably accurate bowling, and some brilliant fielding, won the match by 39 runs and in doing so, snapped Australia's streak of 21 consecutive victories.
After winning the toss and electing to bat, and after losing Chris Gayle in the second over at five for one, the West Indies, led by captain Brian Lara and Wavell Hinds, and supported by Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels and Ricardo Powell dashed to 290 for five.
Then, with Corey Collymore leading the way with two quick wickets one the result of a brilliant catch by Ryan Hurley, and Mervyn Dillon, Sarwan, Gayle and Samuels coming up with good support, and Hinds, Gayle and Lara himself holding on to catches that went their way, chipped to victory.
There was, however, one problem with the performance.
Like the much celebrated victory in the fourth Test, it came after the horse had bolted after Australia, quite easily at that, had won the series, and as impressive as it was, West Indians should take that into account before they start to beat the drums in celebration of going around yet another corner.
Although they rested Matthew Hayden, Brad Hogg and Jason Gillespie, Australia obviously went into the match to win it and they probably lost it simply because the West Indies played well.
As much as Australia may have played to win, however, they were 4-0 up, they had already won the series and there is a difference between wanting to win and needing to win. Regardless of the desire and the effort, when someone does not need to win, the adrenalin does not flow as much as when he needs to win.
And the opposite is also true. Some people are at their best when there is no pressure, and having already lost the series, there was no pressure on the West Indies.
The match was virtually won by the West Indies batting, and even if the adrenalin was not flowing as far as the Aussie bowlers and fielders were concerned - and based on the below par performance in the field, it certainly looked that way - in terms of skill, it was a lovely performance by the West Indies.
It demonstrated a weakness in the West Indies team, however, and that is cause for concern. The weakness, it appears, is that this West Indies team does not play well under pressure.
If that is the case, however, if it is not that Australia were not their usual hungry-to-win selves and that the adrenalin was not flowing, then all things being equal, those who believe may soon really have good reasons to cheer and to celebrate - certainly as far as batting is concerned.
The West Indies inability to deal with pressure may well be because there are so many young, relatively inexperienced players in the team, that they lack confidence in their ability, and if that is the case, once there is the desire to succeed and the discipline to go with it, time will take care of that.
