“I thought that it was important for us to bat well in the first session but in doing that, it must have awakened the Australians because they knew the match was now on,” Lara said in a post-match interview.

“I knew that the second session was going to be tougher and that is where we collapsed. It was a situation where we needed to bat well and put the pressure on the Australians but they showed their professionalism and they came back and they got us out,” Lara remarked.

Lara said he was happy with the West Indies’ score of 210 for three at lunch, going after Australia’s daunting victory target of 407 runs.

“I think that sitting down at lunchtime today, I was very happy to know that I had a batsman coming in at number seven but it did not work out,” Lara said in defending the decision to play seven batsmen.

The West Indies skipper said he is leading an inexperienced side against the world champions and Caribbean cricket fans must be patient with the young players, rather than call for too many changes to the squad.

“We shouldn’t get carried away. We are playing against the best team in the world and trying too much could be a problem,” Lara noted.

“I think one of the main things we don’t want to do is lose the next Test match. Whatever the situation if we can get a draw at the Oval, it would be great so we would be very careful in seeing who we select for the next Test match,” Lara said.

“If you look at the age group of my team. We are averaging 24-25 (years). The Australians are averaging 29-30, they are the world champions in the One Day and as far as I am concerned, they are the best Test-playing team in the world,” Lara reasoned.

“I think competing is very important for this young team and as far as I am concerned, we are competing. We just need to make sure and secure a couple more sessions and I think we are going to be in safe hands,” added Lara.

“Young fast bowlers are needed but you got to be very careful. You are playing against the best team in the world and we got to be very careful and ensure we nurture the youngsters carefully,” Lara reasoned.

Lara said he hopes whatever changes are made to the team they will be done for “the betterment of West Indies cricket.”

He said the young players are going to learn from their errors.

“They are all going to learn from this situation. I don’t think we need to lament on how any one individual got out. I think it is important that we look ahead and try not to make the same mistakes again,” Lara said.

“We need to move on and I am trying to keep a very upbeat feeling and atmosphere in the team and ensure that we go to Barbados, giving ourselves a chance, not the burden of being 2-0 down and not the burden of playing against the best team in the world,” Lara remarked.

“We got to be very optimistic when we get there and we got to try new things and we got to ensure that we don’t make the same mistakes and play a good five days of cricket,” Lara said.

About his own batting on the last day, Lara felt that he had to be even more dominant if the West Indies were to challenge Australia.

“I started the day on 52, so I’m almost sure that I didn’t get what I wanted to get out of the day. Maybe, we were losing a bit of wickets and I needed to try to take control of the strike for a bit longer to settle things down.

“That’s exactly what I was trying but at the end of the day, you want to make sure and go all the way. I am happy to get a hundred yes, but the situation was that I supposed to get a lot more than a hundred to save the West Indies team and that didn’t happen,” Lara confessed.