We need to play smart cricket to topple Australia: Lara

Mumbai, Nov 4 (UNI) West Indies captain Brian Lara today said the need of the hour would be to play smart and intelligent cricket to get the better of Australia in the Champions Trophy final tomorrow.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference here, Lara said if they wanted to retain the trophy won by them in 2004 in England, they would have to play intelligently rather than resorting to mere aggression.

''We need to play smart cricket and not go aggressively at the Australians which they are used to. We need to play sensible and intelligent cricket to beat the Australians. Tomorrow the team that plays smarter will win,'' he said.

Lara admitted that the Australians are the favourites for the title, but the tag of being underdogs suits them and was equally optimistic of winning the title as Australia.

''Of course Australia are the favourites in the final, being the world champions and the number one team. But we have played very good cricket. I am no less optimistic than Ricky,'' he said.

Pointing to West Indies' victories over the world champions in two of the last four encounters, Lara said, ''We are 2-2 now and we want to make it 3-2 in our favour.'' Lara felt that the tag of ''unpredictable'' suited the West Indies fine as long as they were playing good cricket.

''I love the tag. We have been playing very good cricket and have very good momentum going. We are looking forward to the final,'' he said.

Looking back at the turnaround in his team's fortunes, Lara said one of the reasons for it was the players had started believing in themselves.

''We are more assured in our performances as compared to 2004 when we made it to the final. The players are also more experienced now. We have started believing in ourselves.'' Lara said the team did not have a set batting order and preferred it to be flexible with all the players capable of performing at any given slot.

Lara, who said he needed more rest to recover fully and be 100 per cent fit, refused to predict how the wicket for the final would behave as he was yet to have a look at it.

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