Lara fit and raring to go against South Africa

Jaipur, Nov 1 (UNI) In what certainly isn't music to Graeme Smith's ear, batting maestro Brian Lara today said he is fit and raring to go against South Africa in the second semi-final of the ICC Champions Trophy here tomorrow.

The West Indian skipper developed a back spasm in a Group A league fixture against Australia and was visibly at pain in the matches against India and England. But, he laid to rest the speculations about his availability for tomorrow's match.

''I'm a lot better. I've had a couple of days rest. I'm feeling fine now,'' Lara told reporters here.

''I could not get to bat much against India or England but now that I'm fit, it is suddenly giving me a lot more confidence,'' he added.

Despite having beaten world champions Australia and hosts India en-route to the semi-finals, Lara guarded against complacency and admitted that South Africa start as favourites for tomorrow's match.

''The wins against Australia and India are now past. Those two wins gave us a lot of confidence, but we gotta move forward with that belief to our next two matches -- semi-final and the final -- something which is going to be extremely tough,'' the left handed prolific batsman said.

''South Africa, being the higher-ranked team are favourites for tomorrow's game but we are also playing good cricket. We'll have to get our gameplan right to win,'' Lara added.

The West Indian skipper underlined the importance of winning the tournament saying that a triumph here would set the right foundations for the World Cup next year to be hosted in the Caribbeans.

''Being the host to World Cup means tremendous burden of expectations to perform. Tommorrow's match is huge for us as the road to the World Cup starts right from here,'' he said.

The southpaw appeared not too concerned either about the picth or the dew factor and said the key would be to get the basics right.

''It's a good pitch. We played against Bangladesh here and they had a good start. Later England started very well against Australia on the same wicket.

''Batting first or bowling first matters little and I feel better team is gonna win the match,'' Lara asserted.

On what was the West Indian recipe to success in the championship, Lara said, ''We played some good cricket against India and Australia in Malaysia prior to the tournament. Then we had to play qualifiers which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it helped us to have build some momentum.'' UNI DH PDS BST1800