Kuala Lumpur, Sept. 24: West Indian captain Brian Lara was understandably disappointed with his team’s loss in the final of the tri-nations tournament but took heart from the fact that the Caribbeans had finished second. "We have to eradicate today’s problems and I do feel that being second-best among two teams rated higher than us was a good effort. Getting to the final was a plus," he said after the match on Sunday. Excerpts:

On the match: I thought in the first half of the game in the field, the guys worked really hard. Unfortunately, we didn’t get things going in the second half; we lost too many wickets early on, and put a lot of pressure on ourselves. You know, we have crumbled in the past in this tournament, and it happened again this time from the beginning. Getting to the final was a plus. We’ve got a week in Malaysia before getting to the Champions Trophy and we are going to be trying our best there.

On his dismissal: Of course I was disappointed to get out, but these things happen. When the umpire gives me out, I’m not going to go back.

On the wicket: There was a bit of wear and tear on it, it was difficult. The way we got out throughout our innings didn’t necessarily have anything to do with the pitch. We played bad shots at times, there’s just nothing else to blame but ourselves.

On who impressed him most: I think Dwayne Smith, we just need to get his batting together. You can see he is a power hitter but we need to get him to spend more time in the middle. I think Jerome Taylor improved as the tournament progressed. Chris Gayle had a pretty good tournament. We’ve got five or six in and around the form. There are other players we have to massage and get together.