West Indies cricket captain Brian Lara labelled the practise of playing limited overs cricket at night as ”unfair”, claiming the toss played far too prominent a role in the outcome of matches.
One of the main reasons why the Windies won the fourth limited overs encounter at Centurion on Sunday, according to Lara, was that the match was played entirely during the day.
”Playing five one-dayers, with four of them being day night affairs, I was worried,” admitted Lara after spurring the Windies to a surprise seven wicket victory.
”Here we finally got a game where the toss didn’t matter. At the Wanderers on Wednesday you don’t know what’s going to happen come six thirty or seven o’clock.”
The Windies lost both matches at the start of the tour batting first — managing just 54 in Cape Town in the opening match.
”Today cricket was the winner and the spectators loved it,” Lara said.
By chasing down the hosts’ 297 for four, the Windies kept alive the five match series.
”We’re not going to go overboard with this win,” added Lara, who smashed 59 not out in 37 balls.
”We need to win the next game and we’ll go home a lot happier.”
His opposite number in the South African camp simply put the loss down to his bowlers bowling both sides of the wicket.
”We weren’t good today,” admitted Graeme Smith on his 23rd birthday. ”On a very good batting pitch you need to be precise and we weren’t.
”It’s back to the drawing board now, learn from this and come back stronger at the Wanderers.”
The final match of the series takes place on Wednesday at the Wanderers. – Sapa