West Indies skipper Brian Lara today sought to deflect criticism of his
decision to field first in the fourth and final cricket one-dayer against India
which the visitors lost by a huge 160-run margin here.
"Nothing wrong with the decision to field first. But our bowlers did not
pitch in the right areas and allowed India to get off to a flying start. Then
there were batsmen like (Mahendra) Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar to finish
the job," said Lara after the visitors lost the series 1-3 to the hosts.
"They got too many runs and we lost too many early wickets. India did
very well on the field too and Yuvraj took a spectacular catch. We came here
to win but were outplayed," said the West Indies great who played his last
one-day international on Indian soil.
Lara said he would stick to his earlier decision to quit from the shorter form
of the game after the World Cup at home.
But the West Indies skipper said his team needed to put the loss behind
them and refocus their energies on the mega event in March-April.
"We need to put this behind us. It was good to play some international
cricket. We competed well against a team which is hard to beat at home. We are
now going to focus on the World Cup," he said.
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