Restricting Yousuf key to levelling series, King says

KARACHI, Nov 25 (Reuters) Bennet King, West Indies' Australian coach, has underlined the need for his players to pin down Pakistan's in-form batsman Mohammad Yousuf in the third and final test starting on Monday.

Yousuf has been a thorn in the West Indies side in Pakistan with scores of 193, 56 and 191 in his three innings in the first two tests.

West Indian fielders dropped Yousuf three times in the first test loss in Lahore and gave him more chances in the high-scoring drawn game in Multan.

''Our bowling has not been bad. It is just that we have not taken our opportunities and we have let him off the hook several times,'' King said on Saturday.

''He is certainly a very good player and in form and we certainly need to take care of him and grab our opportunities if we want to be in a strong position in this test,'' he said.

Yousuf has scored 1562 runs in ten tests in the calendar year with seven hundreds and needs 149 to beat the record of 1710 runs in a year set by Vivian Richards in 1976.

King stressed the need for his side to raise their fielding standards.

''If we don't take our chances then we only have ourselves to blame like in Multan.'' King said although his players have been on the road for the last three months they were determined to finish off on a winning note.

''Despite the hectic schedule I think they played some of their best cricket on the final day in Multan when most sides start to feel the effects of a long tour.'' ''The players have shown mental fortitude and I am very encouraged by their performance in the last game. They have shown they can go from strength to strength,'' he added.

REUTERS PM RK1620