Lara motivated by pressure

Brian Lara © Getty Images

Brian Lara will be in his element when Australia target him as West Indies’ key player in the World Cup’s first Super Eight match.

The Windies captain, nursing twin ambitions of nurturing a team for the future and ensuring they are also competitive in their own tournament, garners extra motivation when opposition try to put him under pressure.

The master batsman will be expecting nothing less from Australia at the newly-built Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, as the champions continue their quest for World Cup silverware for the third successive time.

“It is the thing that actually drives me - that the opposition is going to come after the so-called key player,” said Lara.

“That’s the thing that brings a positive response from somebody like myself.”

As for the team he represents and leads, Lara acknowledges they will have to be right at their best to inflict a first defeat in the tournament so far on the Aussies.

“I think we still have a lot of work to do to match the skills of the Australia team,” he said.

“We are dangerous - but they are more dangerous.

“They are playing at their best, and I can tell from the way they are playing that they are here to make it a hat-trick of wins.

“They are very confident in their ability.”

Lara, whose team also have a 100 per cent record from their group campaign, believes the Windies have good prospects of making their nation proud over the next month.

Brian Lara is the West Indies' key batsman © Getty Images

“I am quietly confident that we can perform pretty well in this World Cup,” he said.

“The tournament still has a month left, and it is important to take each game at a time - don’t get over-confident.”

Lara’s opposite number Ricky Ponting is careful to accord the Windies due respect.

He notes they have beaten Australia in recent times - but not, Ponting points out, when it has mattered most.

“They’ve won a couple of games against us of late, but in the two finals we’ve beaten them convincingly,” he recalled.

Australia lost to these opponents in the qualifying stages for last year’s Champions Trophy in India - but then beat them by eight wickets in the final of that mini-World Cup tournament.

Ponting is also encouraged by Australia’s group victory over the world’s top one-day international side South Africa in St Kitts.

“If we play like we did against South Africa I think they’ll have a lot to fear - but that is up to us,” he accepted.

“I think it will take a performance similar to the one we had the other day if we are going to beat them.”

Ponting will not underestimate the Windies - especially on home territory.

“They are a very good one-day side; they should know these conditions better than anyone and will have some great crowd support,” he predicted.

Even so, Australia showed their captain enough in the 83-run success against South Africa to give him plenty of confidence.

“I thought our batting was excellent the other day,” he said.

“The bowling was under a bit of pressure early on - but that was to be expected in those conditions.”

Australia, for whom Matthew Hayden hit the World Cup’s fastest hundred over the weekend and wrist-spinner Brad Hogg and pace bowler Shaun Tait performed important roles with the ball, intend to field an unchanged line-up.

“When we took the pace off the ball, with Hogg coming on, I thought he did a good job - as did Tait coming back in the middle overs to make those breakthroughs,” said Ponting.

“Then (Nathan) Bracken bowled his last five overs for about 20 runs - pretty crucial to the game.”

The captain is now simply ordering more of the same.