Windies can hold heads high - Bravo

West Indies batsman Darren Bravo said Thursday his team can take a lot of pride from their brave second-innings batting performance despite losing the Test series against India.

The left-hander smashed a superb 136 before the tourists lost the second Test by an innings and 15 runs on the penultimate day at Eden Gardens in Kolkata to concede a 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

Sad feeling

The tourists, dismissed for 153 in their first innings in reply to India's mammoth 631-7 declared, batted better in the second innings before being bowled out for 463.

"It is obviously a sad feeling because it (century) was not enough. Making India bat again was an uphill task, but we can hold our heads high with our performance in the second innings," said Bravo, 22.

"I played my natural game as much as possible and luckily the big hits came off. I am happy with my performance. Batting with (Shivnarine) Chanderpaul gave me a lot of confidence. I worked on my concentration a lot more."

Bravo, who scored three half-centuries in his debut Test series in Sri Lanka last year, cracked his maiden Test hundred in the second and final match against Bangladesh in Dhaka before the India tour. Marlon Samuels (84), opener Adrian Barath (62), Kirk Edwards (60) and Chanderpaul (47) were the other main run-getters for the West Indies in the second innings.

"In the second innings, we decided to come together as a team, play our strokes and express ourselves in the best possible way," said Bravo.

"It was good to see Barath and Edwards bat well at the top of the order and Samuels later. It is good to know that it is not just Chanderpaul that we can depend on to get the big scores." Bravo, often compared with his cousin and former West Indies captain Brian Lara for his rich strokeplay, said it would be very difficult to emulate the batting great.

Left-handed Lara quit international cricket in 2007 with 11,953 runs in Tests and 10,405 in one-day internationals.

Honoured

"I am quite honoured by the fact that I am compared with Brian Lara. He is definitely my role model," said Bravo, who has so far scored 941 runs in 12 Tests and 757 in 31 one-dayers.

"I play my natural game and look something like Lara, but nevertheless I know that emulating him and to achieve what he has achieved will be difficult." Bravo said his team would look to improve upon their performance in the third and final Test, starting in Mumbai on Tuesday.

"We will play with a lot of pride and passion. We know what went wrong with our performance in the first match and here, so obviously our preparations will be to better our performance," he said.

KOLKATA, Friday, AFP