LONDON, CMC:
TEAM MANAGER Tony Howard is elated at the West Indies' progression in the ICC Champions Trophy limited-overs cricket series and believes it is because of hard work.
The West Indies survived an injury scare to Lara to demolish Pakistan by seven wickets in the second semi-final on Wednesday and storm into today's final at the Oval against hosts England.
"The team has been building steadily, and they have been doing a lot of work," Howard said.
RESULTS
"I think the results they have had so far are testament to some of the work the team has been doing."
Howard also said that in the team's objectives before the Championship that it was their intention to win.
"When we arrived, the objective was to play the four games and win the trophy and also to take one game at a time," he said.
"The team has done that and they have done pretty well so far and they have gotten more confident as the tournament went on."
QUIETLY CONFIDENT
On the big final, Howard asserted that the players were quietly confident.
"The air is one of quiet confidence built on the back of doing the work," he said. "They have actually been doing the work and studying the opposition assiduously and trying to fill the holes.
"We have played England during the summer, they have gotten the better of us in the Test matches and we have gotten the better of them in the limited-overs matches and it will be an even contest come Saturday."
SQUADS
ENGLAND:
Michael Vaughan (captain), Marcus Trescothick (vice-captain), James Anderson, Gareth Batty, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Darren Gough, Steve Harmison, Geraint Jones, Anthony McGrath, Vikram Solanki, Andrew Strauss, Alex Wharf.
WEST INDIES (from):
Brian Lara (captain), Ramnaresh Sarwan (vice-captain), Ian Bradshaw, Dwayne Bravo, Courtney Browne, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Corey Collymore, Mervyn Dillon, Chris Gayle, Ryan Hinds, Wavell Hinds, Sylvester Joseph, Ricardo Powell, Darren Sammy.
UMPIRES: Rudi Koertzen, Simon Taufel, TV Replays: Darrell Hair.
MATCH REFEREE: Ranjan Madugalle.
