West Indies captain Brian Lara conceded that his team missed out on a golden opportunity yesterday against world champions Australia in the first test by failing to capitalise on a good batting track.
Lara was at the time answering questions at a post-play press conference at the GCC ground Bourda.
The West Indies captain when asked to give his view on the days play said, "I think we messed it up, I didn't see any devils in the pitch, so we should have been batting at the end of the day."
Lara said that Australia without Glen McGrath and Shane Warne, were still a good professional team.
He reiterated, however, that the Bourda track was a good batting wicket and that the West Indies should have done better without those two strike bowlers on the Aussie team.
However, Lara said that the team still did reasonably well after the early damage to the innings and that they probably have made runs they probably did not expect to get.
Lara said it was a good recovery by the Windies, under the circumstances.
He added that the West Indies are still in front of Australia in terms of runs and they will see what can happen by keeping things tight while hoping to contain the Aussies.
The captain commended reliable middle-order batsman Guyanese, Shivnarine Chanderpaul who recorded his seventh test century and his third at Bourda.
Chanderpaul's hundred was the third fastest in test cricket history.
Lara also praised wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs on his bravery and commitment for batting on and remaining unbeaten at the end of the West Indian innings, even though he was injured. He added that the team will miss Jacobs behind the stumps but said hopefully they won't be without him for too long.
The captain was asked about the batting order of the team and whether there will be any changes in the second innings and said, " I don't think we will fall into that trap," adding, "this is the first day of the first test match."
It was suggested to Lara that he should bat at no.4 and Daren Ganga at no. 6. He said he might take that into account at some point in time.
The captain was quizzed about problems the team had been facing just prior to this test match. He said that those issues were beyond the team's control and further, that they must act like a team now and put all those problems behind them, leaving them in the past. He added that the team must perform professionally.
Lara said that he has been asked to do a job and that he has matured a lot and will do his job to the best of his abilities.
The captain said that the West Indies team will be having a team meeting to discuss what went wrong on the first day, adding, "we should not have been 53-5 at the end of the first session."
Australian captain Steve Waugh, was also available to the media for questions.
The world's most capped test player who was playing in his 157th test said that his bowlers and batters so far have done well, adding that he was satisfied with his team's performance for the day.
Waugh said he did not really think much about the record but that he wanted to concentrate on the match and not the record.
He was asked about the use of five bowlers in the match and said that it was discussed with the Australian selectors and they agreed to try out this combination. He added that if the ploy works then they might likely carry on with it since that may be a good balance to go into test matches.
The captain said it was an exciting experiment to use five bowlers, adding that he knows that Martin Love may have been disappointed at not playing.
Waugh said that the extra bowler is being tried because they want to bowl the opposition out twice on the Bourda track which has over the years been friendly to batsmen.
The Australian captain added however that they don't want to get carried away, with things as they are but that the perfect plan on the Bourda wicket would be to bat once.
Middle-order batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul also faced questions from the media about his performance and was asked about his history-making performance.
He said that when he came back from the World Cup he had played a few first class matches and had gotten some runs so this had helped him to score the third fastest century in test history.
Chanderpaul said, "well it was a pretty good wicket to bat on," adding, "yes! This is the best innings ever I have probably played, because i was playing against the best team in the world and it was at home."
Chanderpaul said he is hopeful his injury will be fine in a couple of days.
Wicket-keeper Ridley Jacobs was at the same press briefing with Chanderpaul and was quizzed on his courageous unbeaten innings.
The former West Indies vice-captain, who had to bat for most of his innings with a runner was asked about his commitment to West Indies cricket and if this impacted on him.
He said, "when you go out there you want to give your best for the West Indies, and that is what I did."
Jacobs is not sure if he will be able to play further in the match because of his injury which he said was a bit sore.
He said that he will need to assess how he feels before he decides to bat again in the match.
Jacobs credited Chanderpaul with giving him courage as the West Indies were in dire straits at just over fifty with five wickets gone.
He added that cricket is a funny game and if they bowl well they can still restrict Australia and get back into the match.
The wicket-keeper was asked whether he has plans to retire soon and said that he cannot answer that question at the moment since he is still playing for the West Indies at the moment.
Jacobs when asked about his heir apparent Carlton Baugh jr, stated that Baugh was a good player for the future.
He also said that opener Devon Smith was another good prospect for the future adding that it was unfortunate the way he got out but that he will learn to deal with these things as time goes on.
Neither Jacobs nor Chanderpaul could say who was the vice-captain for the first test.