Relief for West Indies but questions remain

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Mar 14 (Reuters) World Cup hosts West Indies' opening day victory over Pakistan provided evidence that, while frustratingly inconsistent, Brian Lara's side are capable of beating anyone on their day.

Friday's warm-up defeat to India, when the hosts were dismissed for a pitiful 85 at Trelawny, had set alarm bells ringing among the home support but there was a new confidence among the celebration at Sabina Park yesterday.

Former West Indies opening bowler Michael Holding, now a television commentator, captured the mood of relief as he left the ground. ''It was a good start and we needed that -- we really needed that,'' he told reporters.

All-rounder Dwayne Smith was man-of-the-match after he delivered a match-winning performance in the 54-run victory.

HARD-HITTING First a hard-hitting innings of 32 from 15 balls helped push his side to a decent total of 241.

Then his medium-pace bowling turned the game in West Indies' direction with the vital wickets of Mohammad Yousuf and Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq as he claimed three for 36.

On the batting front there were sizeable contributions from Marlon Samuels (63), Ramnaresh Sarwan (49) and Lara (37). Samuels was particularly impressive with his strokeplay changing the momentum of the game.

Opening bowlers Daren Powell and Jerome Taylor were sharp and efficient, third-seamer Corey Collymore bowled tightly for his one for 27 off 8.2 overs.

Medium-pacer Dwayne Bravo dealt with the Pakistan lower order by claiming three wickets at the end.

BRILLIANT CATCH The West Indians were also sharp in the field. Bravo produced a brilliant, diving catch at point for the dismissal of Kamran Akmal and did superbly well to capture Umar Gul off his own bowling.

Wicket-keeper Denesh Ramdin, whose form was criticised before the tournament, was tidy behind the stumps and claimed three smart catches.

On all fronts then, West Indies look to have everything in place for a successful tournament if they can reproduce such displays consistently throughout the coming weeks -- a big 'if' given their patchy record in the past two years.

Perhaps with that in mind, skipper Lara pinpointed one of the weaknesses with the display.

''I still think in the batting department we did it in spurts. We had a couple of very good periods and this is maybe something we need to talk about over the next four or five days,'' he told reporters.

''Our 241 at the end was a very good score given that we were 169 with eight overs left so the guys did really well at the end.

''As a team we don't have a lot of big hitters at the end, excluding Dwayne (Smith) so we need to be scoring a more regular run rate throughout the entire game. We are going to work on that,'' he said.

Indeed last week Lara was talking about his team's ''chronic'' tendency towards batting collapses and it will take more than one good win to dispel that fear.

It also remains to be seen whether Lara's reliance on seam -- the defensive off-breaks of Chris Gayle is the only slow bowling option he has -- will pay off on slower tracks than Sabina Park.

With Zimbabwe and Ireland to come before the Super Eight stage, Lara will be hoping to ease those concerns before coming up against the competition's big guns.

Reuters DH DB2211