PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):
WEST INDIES skipper Brian Lara says his side will be taking tomorrow's final one-day international (ODI) against India seriously, despite taking a winning 3-1 lead in the Digicel series yesterday.
"It's not a dead match. We are on the road to getting ourselves ready for the World Cup," Lara said after West Indies completed a six-wicket drubbing of India at Queen's Park Oval.
"First of all we have the ICC (Champions Trophy) tournament after this and we are looking forward to that so it is important that we keep the distance between ourselves and India.
"We know that they are without a couple of their best players but I think it is important that we continue winning."
TESTING RESERVES
Despite taking the final ODI seriously, Lara revealed that
several fringe players could be used to test the strength of the reserves.
"In all, I was quite happy with the performance of the guys and it now makes the game on Sunday very, very important because we are going to try, I suppose, some of our reserves and if we can beat India with that, I think it shows that we are clearly a better team," Lara said.
"It was a great performance. We spoke to the guys yesterday (Thursday) and talked about (how) India would be desperate today," Lara said. "(We told them) 'They are going to come out and try to win; they are going to depend upon a lot of their main players. If we have an all-round performance from everyone, to stop them every time they come at us, we can do it' and I thought the guys played pretty well again."
