 Smith delighted with team effort against Windies
11th Apr 2007 15:10 IST
Agencies
West Indian captain Brian Lara admitted that his side's campaign in the World Cup was over and the pressure of the big stage badly affected his team's performance.
"I think it's over. It's six points with South Africa having a much better run-rate than us. We hold our hands up and admit that we were not good enough to be in the semi-finals," confessed a sombre Lara after his side was thrashed by the Proteas.
The flamboyant left-hander said his side crumbled under the weight of expectations in the showpiece event.
"We did not stand up to pressure. There was always this feeling that host nations do not do very well in the World Cup.
"We did not stand up and pressure played a part for sure. The stats show that we have been badly beaten by a better team," he said.
Lara said his side found it difficult to play against better teams in the Super Eight stage and did believe that they were the underdogs in this group of elite teams.
"We came into the Super Eight stage thinking most of the teams were higher ranked than us. It was hard to play against these teams, we were the underdogs.
"They not only were higher-ranked teams than us but they also played better cricket. If you look at margin of defeats, they were huge," he said. |
