Lara: We Have To Keep Momentum

West Indies skipper Brian Lara wants his side to keep the positive momentum going finals of the ICC Champions Trophy against Australia.

In a chat with the media after the six-wicket win over South Africa in Jaipur, Lara praised the batting of Chris Gayle and said the pre-tournament tri-nation series in Malaysia helped the West Indies get adequate preparation. Excerpts from Lara's comments follow:

We played the game well throughout and credit must be given to the guys in the field because no point in time. South Africa seemed like they were heading to a big total. I thought we restricted them throughout and kept the pressure on them all the time. They had to play some big shots which caused some wickets to fall.

We knew 258 was gettable, the guys spoke before the match about chasing and they thought that the pitch looked very good and that it would stay that way the entire 100 overs. It was a good toss to lose. It is a situation where we have to move on from here with the same sort of game plan with everyone trying to make a contribution.

On how the team's preparation has helped:

We had a tournament in Malaysia recently, before that we played against India where we won the series 4-1. Our One Day game has always been pretty good, it just needed a bit of fine tuning. We were forced to play the preliminary round here to qualify and that in itself gave us a lot of competitive cricket.

It's the fact that we're building up momentum and the guys are believing in themselves and believing in the plans and we executed well. It's good to see the guys go out there stick to the plans, work hard and get the results. It's just to keep the momentum going now, analyze each game even if you lose, it's going to be an exciting time for us in the One Dayers coming up.

On being in the finals:

It's nice to be playing the world champions in the finals, it says a lot for our efforts. We are looking forward to the challenge. Australia has gained some momentum after they lost to us in the first match, I'm sure they are very buoyed and confident of their chances on Sunday. We again have to go back to the drawing board, andwork on a few things. We are looking forward to the challenge and we are going to back ourselves.

On what the West Indies game plan was in chasing 258:

Our first decision was to stay out there, see the pitch and I think in the very first over they saw the pitch was nothing like Mohali, nothing like Ahmedabad and they played accordingly which was good. The way Chris Gayle and (Shiv) Chanderpaul started they transferred the pressure on the South Africans.

They (the South Africans) came out to apply pressure on us with the likes of (Shaun) Pollock and (Makhaya) Ntini and (Andre) Nel. The fact that after 15 overs we were close to a hundred runs put them on the back foot and they just had to play catch up cricket after that. It was a good effort and everybody must be commended for it.

On what it?s like to captain Chris Gayle:

He's excellent, Chris Gayle has always been our top player with the bat, with the ball, in the field. He's very chirpy as well and he has a great influence on the guys which is tremendous. You might see him there maybe a bit comical on occasions but he takes his cricket very seriously and in the practice sessions his preparation is great and he's reaping the rewards for it now.