West Indies opener Chris Gayle bats during the rain-shortened fifth day of the first Test match against England at Lord's. - dellmar

LONDON, England (CMC):

West Indies captain Ramnaresh Sarwan yesterday praised his side following the drawn opening Test and said the result would give the tourists added confi-dence ahead of the second encounter at Headingley later this week.

West Indies were set an improbable 401 for victory after England declared their second innings late Sunday at 284 for eight.

They had put up a fine batting performance in the first innings, scoring 437 in response to England's 553 for five declared.

Give confidence

"This is going to give us a lot of confidence going into the next Test match having not been playing well at the Test level," Sarwan said. "I think this is going to boost us and give us that sort of confidence which we've been lacking. Hopefully, we can drive on from here."

Only 20 overs were possible as West Indies, resuming at seven without loss reached 89 without loss on a day ruined by rain and bad light.

"We didn't have much practice and there was a lot of doubt about whether we could draw the Test match or even win it, but I don't think you can fault anyone for their efforts at all," Sarwan told reporters after bad light eventually forced a premature end to the final day's play at Lord's.

"I thought everyone contri-buted and that was good to see and hopefully we'll be able to push on from here on.

"There is not much I can complain about, the only concern I have is our bowling in the first session, but we came back really well after that. Everyone played their part, especially the batters and it was really good to see everyone getting a score."

Sarwan, in his first Test as captain, said the team had not been bothered by local media reports suggesting West Indies would have been beaten especially with rain reducing their only warm-up match - a three-day encounter against Somerset - to one day's play.

Not bothered by media

"What the press has been saying about us we don't have control over that. What is important is for us to stay confident and believe in each other and help each other as much as we can, and that is what we brought into this Test match, the fact that we support each other and help each other as much as we can," the 26-year-old noted. "That (media reports) was the least of my problems. It was a matter of getting the guys in the right spirit because I thought that was the most important thing because we didn't have much time leading up to the Test match. That didn't really bother me too much, it was getting the guys in the right frame of mind.

"I'm trying to encourage everyone to be mentally tough, to forget about all that has been said about our preparation and that we're not going to win.

"That is something that really helped us over the past couple of days because leading into the Test match we knew we only practiced indoors so I didn't want to play on the guys minds."