 Lara made 37 but his wicket sparked a collapse in Antigua |
West Indies captain Brian Lara was left to rue losing a crucial toss after his side were beaten by seven wickets by New Zealand in their Super 8 match. The Kiwis enjoyed early bowler-friendly conditions to dismiss the Windies for 177, before Scott Styris' unbeaten 80 eased them home with 64 balls to spare.
And Lara said: "It was a good toss to win with the early movement.
"The pitch became very different and it got easy for their batsman later on. Now we must win our last four games."
However, Lara lauded the efforts of his bowling attack as they tried to defend a below-par total.
 | We're not out of this yet, we just know that we can not afford another defeat |
"At the start we wanted to post 250 plus," said Lara, "and we enjoyed a decent start to move to 60-odd for one.
"But we lost a cluster of wickets, and then Dwayne Bravo and I fell around the same time after a partnership, and that hurt us.
"It was a poor total but credit to my bowlers - and Daren Powell in particular - because they refused to give in and they kept throwing it down and causing them problems.
"We tried our best but it wasn't to be. But we're not out of this yet, we just know that we can not afford another defeat."
