West Indies batsman Darren Bravo said his team can be proud of their efforts despite slumping to another one-day defeat to Australia on Wednesday.
The tourists – who have not won a one-day match against the Aussies down under since January 1997 – saw their opponents take an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the five-match one-day international series at the Manuka Oval in Canberra.
After Shane Watson (122) and Phil Hughes (86) fired Australia to a huge total of 7-329 from their 50 overs, victory was always unlikely for the West Indies.
But they put up a good fight – eventually bowled out for 290 in the 48th over – with Bravo leading the way with 86 from 96 deliveries.
The performance was a good response from two bad losses in Perth and Bravo said he felt his side, who let the run rate increase as the innings went on, could still win the match in the dying stages.
"We showed great character and gave a good account of ourselves and should keep our heads high," Bravo said.
"Knowing our back end I believed we had the capability of scoring the runs and winning the game but it boils down to how we performed in the game and we fell just short.
"It's important for our pride...we don't want to lose the series 5-0 and I'm sure we are going to go back to the drawing board and hopefully come up with a win."
West Indies coach Otis Gibson echoed Bravo's thoughts but was disappointed that the likes of Chris Gayle (two), Kieron Pollard (nine) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (12) all failed.
"We were better than in Perth," Gibson said.
"We are disappointed with the result but not the performance although we were a little disappointing in the field but we batted well and are getting close to winning.
"Someone needed to go on in the middle and, if they had we could have won the match. In the end the score was just too much for us. However we showed a lot of spirit and a lot of character and go into Sydney confident."
Whether the exciting Gayle will play at the SCG is anyone's guess.
The left-hander – who has scored just 10 runs in his three matches this series – suffered an injury when bowling that kept him off the field for more than an hour.
That led to his move down the batting order, and he showed signs of restraint when coming in at No.5 before being dismissed.
"Chris will go for a scan in the morning after tweaking his side bowling," Gibson said.
"Hopefully he pulls up okay and can take the field for us in Sydney. At the moment it's too early to say whether he will play though."
First Posted 07 February, 2013 8:15AM AEST
