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West Indian coach Bennett King is urging his players to raise their game ahead of the final Test against Pakistan starting here at the National Stadium from tomorrow.

“I am pleased at the way my team played in the last Test and have been telling the players to do better and win the coming Test to level the series,” King said here at the National Stadium on Saturday.

King’s team flopped in the opening Test in Lahore but made a forceful comeback in Multan where a rare Test win on Pakistani soil was within its grasp. The match ended in a thrilling draw because of a mammoth 191 from prolific Pakistani batsman Mohammad Yousuf.

Yousuf, who was give three chances by West Indian fielders in Lahore where he made 193, was dropped on 108 on the final day of the Multan Test.

King said that dropped catches were one of the biggest reasons why his team is trailing 0-1 in the Test series but hoped that his fielders would do better in Karachi.

“On the sort of batting-friendly wickets we have played so far in this series, it is difficult to create chances and once your bowlers do that, you cannot afford to waste them,” said the Australian who took over as the West Indian coach two years back.

King said that the tourists were themselves to be blamed for letting Pakistan off the hook in Multan. “We dropped important catches and will have to field better in the future to be able to win matches,” he said.

Under King, West Indies have transformed into a strong one day side and recently reached the final of the ICC Champions Trophy. However, their Test form has been pretty bad but the coach believes his players would soon start doing better in the longer version of the game.

King said that his players have not been affected much by non-stop cricket during the last three months. “We have been on the road for three months but you can see that in the last Test these boys played the best cricket on the final day which shows their mental fortitude,” he remarked.

King described the National Stadium pitch as a slow and batting friendly track that would assist the spinners in the last couple of days. “There is some grass on it but I expect that would be removed before the match so it would very much be a good pitch for the batsmen,” he revealed.
Source:The News