Hooper promise starts to take shape

West Indies captain Carl Hooper lived up to his promise of better to come after they lost to Zimbabwe at the weekend with a comfortable 49-run win over Sri Lanka on Tuesday.

Paceman Corey Collymore with a career-best five for 51 did the damage after Brian Lara (60) and Darren Ganga (50) guided the West Indies to 250 for eight off their 50 overs.

"It was very important for us to win today's game," Hooper said. "If we had played poorly today then we would have put ourselves under pressure.

"It was important to bounce back after that loss to Zimbabwe and there's no better team than Sri Lanka to do it against.

"We realise we have been way below par. Obviously we wanted a win, but to do that we had to lift our game by 20 or 30 per cent."

But Hooper felt there was still room for improvement from his side.

"Ideally, we should have scored 280 or 290. We fell short by maybe 40 or 50 runs, but at least the display in the field was heartening," added the captain.

"The guys came back well, and all credit to Collymore, (Pedro) Collins and (Neil) McGarrell -- the bowlers pulled this win out for us."

Hooper is on course for his pre-match prediction when he said: "We have two games against Sri Lanka. We will win them, meet them in the final, then win that and go home happy."

Also read:
- Zimbabwe recover from humiliating defeat
- Windies beat Sri Lanka

Mail Cricket Editor