ANTIGUA: West Indies and Australia prepare for first of Super 8 World Cup matches

West Indies and Australia practice before their opening match of the Super Eight Series Cricket World Cup in Antigua. West Indies captain Brian Lara will use all the weapons at his command on Tuesday (March 27) including history, crowd support and his own special skills in the World Cup Super Eights match against champions Australia. Lara told a news conference in St John's, Antigua on Monday (March 26) that West Indies had enjoyed some successes against the Australians, including a win during the preliminary stages of the Champions Trophy last year. "Australia of course start off as favourite tomorrow and will continue to be favourite right up until they exit the tournament or win the tournament," he said. "But for us it's a huge game. As you said, we have had some success against them in the recent past. We know that it is going to be tough. Australia's 'never say die' attitude is always going to be present and we are going to work hard to ensure that we are going to get the better of them." Lara said neither team had played at the new Sir Vivian Richards stadium, named after the island's most famous cricketing son and built in partnership with China. Lara, now in the twilight of a career which has gathered him more test runs than any other batsman as well as the highest test and first-class individual scores, remains the batsman the opposition fear most. "I think that's the thing that actually drives me," he said. "The fact that the opposition will come after the so-called key player on each team. That's the sort of thing that's going to trigger a positive response from someone like myself. But it's also the fact that we are also trying to create a lot more matchwinners. So if they want to go out for key players they will have to go out for seven, eight nine players. I mean, if you want to go after Australia you can't stop at Ponting, you can't stop at Hayden." Both West Indies and Australia won each of their group games, giving them a bonus of two points at the start of the Super Eights. Australia captain Ricky Ponting said: "I think it will take a good solid team performance from us to beat the West Indies. I think they are a very good one day side. They should know these conditions as well as anybody and they will have great crowd support here. I think it will take a performance similar to the one against South Africa the other day if we are going to beat them." Ponting also told his news conference: "As this tournament gets on I think it will be harder and harder for the batsmen. This wicket out here for tomorrow's game looks particularly good. It looks very hard, it's got a nice little shine on the top of it so I would expect the new ball to skid onto the bat pretty nicely. So once you get through the new ball I think you are going to see some handy runs made out there tomorrow." Teams: Australia - Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting (captain), Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Michael Hussey, Shane Watson, Brad Hogg, Nathan Bracken, Shaun Tait, Glenn McGrath. West Indies (probable) - Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels, Brian Lara (captain), Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith, Denesh Ramdin, Ian Bradshaw, Jerome Taylor, Daren Powell.

ITN Source | March 27, 2007

Tags:. .scores. .tough. .champions. .africa. .similar