Windies not daunted by unbeaten India: Sammy

All-rounder Darren Sammy has said the West Indies are not daunted by the prospect of facing an unbeaten India when the two teams clash in the cricket World Cup Pool B fixture at the WACA here on Friday.

The West Indies remain in contention for a quarterfinal berth, having won and lost two matches each and two more to play before the knockouts start. Jason Holders' men are in fourth place in the standings behind India, who have won all three of their matches, followed by South Africa and Ireland, reports CMC.

"We go out on the cricket field looking to win matches. It would be good to get a win against India. The Indian team is good but we are not going to focus solely on them. We are going to focus on what we could do. Once we do what we could do, we are going to defeat teams," said Sammy. The last time the two teams battled it out in a World Cup match was in 2011 when India emerged victorious.

"We will compete and give ourselves a chance of winning. We have shown when we get it right we compete with the best in the world. It's about putting our focus on the things we do well consistently over a longer period of time in the match. The team which absorbs the most pressure normally tends to win cricket matches," said Sammy.

Captain Holder is again leading the Windies, who desperately need a win to keep alive their chances of securing a last eight berth. The 23-year-old, who topscored with 56 off 48 balls, the highest score of his One-Day International (ODI) career, against South Africa, has been under intense scrutiny since accepting the position to lead the Caribbean side.

"He is a strong character and strong characters when they go through tough times they always come back stronger. But it is important that we as a team support him and help him through the tough times," he said.

On the other hand, legendary West Indies cricketer Brian Lara has warned Pakistan team of harbouring any hopes of making it to the knockout stages unless their top players wake up and regain form in the ongoing World Cup tournament.

Pakistan scraped out a 20run win over Zimbabwe on Sunday in Brisbane after suffering humiliating defeats against the West Indies and India in their first two matches.

The former batting legend said that Pakistan would have to wake up some time in the tournament, adding that some of their top players are still asleep and they have to wake up, the Dawn reported.

Reflecting on Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup winning team, Lara said that back in 1992, Pakistan had a lot of match-winners, adding that Imran was an inspirational leader and his team members spoke of them being cornered tigers.