Lara hopeful of Windies making to semi-final

St Peter's, Antigua, Mar 28 (UNI) Despite a crushing defeat at the hands of Australia, West Indies skipper Brian Lara exuded confidence that his side will make it to the semi-finals of the cricket World Cup.

''Yes, it is bit of a disadvantage, losing two points in the Super League opener, but I am hopeful that the boys will pull up their socks. We still have five more games to go,'' Lara told mediapersons after his team suffered a 103-run defeat against the defending champions.

''We won't meet them again until the semi-finals, so we have got to focus on the remaining games to get there.'' Lara justified his move to chase after winning the toss, saying the West Indies preferred not to defend a total.

''We are good at chase. There was nothing wrong with the pitch, we knew yesterday after the first four or five overs that this was a batting paradise. We needed to keep wickets in hand and not allow the rate required to climb, but we didn't manage either of that,'' said the prolific batsman who top-scored for his side with 77.

He said losing three wickets in the first 10 overs was a major setback.

''We needed three out of the top four batsmen to come through, the major factor was early wickets we lost.'' Lara defended his batsmen saying, ''People might say Gayle and Samuels played rash shots, but no one goes out there wanting to play a bad shot and get out. If those shots had come off, everyone would have got up and applauded.'' ''I still have the confidence in the top four. It won't be an excuse tomorrow. We are looking forward to go out and play better cricket again.'' He admitted that failure of his side to restrict Australia to around 250 or 260 made all the difference.

''If we could have kept them down to even 50 runs less or got off to a good start, anything was possible,'' Lara rued.

Lara had also a word of praise for their opponents.

''Australia were impressive. We didn't put them under any pressure. They were not tested, they are a professional unit and have made 300 in all four games here. It is not going to be easy to beat them on any surface. They look like a team that has come here for only one purpose.'' Asked about their second game against New Zealand, Lara said, ''Of course it is a disadvantage having to play three days on the trot. The only saving grace is that the bowlers could put their feet up today. We are focussed on tomorrow's game, we know New Zealand are a very good one-day outfit, and we will not take them any less seriously than we did the Australians. We are confident of getting our act together.'' Lara expressed his disappointment at poor crowd response for the match saying, ''When you sit back and think, every game that the West Indies play you expect a full house. We had good crowd in Jamaica in games against Pakistan and against Ireland.'' ''I hope in the remaining matches people will come out to support the West Indies and support the World Cup,'' he said adding ''I don't know where to put my finger upon as we just focus on the cricket and hope people do come out.'' UNI