/ Editor / 31 March 2007 /

West Indies captain Brian Lara has urged his players to pull together ahead of their crunch Super 8 clash with Sri Lanka on Sunday.

The World Cup hosts enjoyed a 100 per cent record in the group stages but have been soundly beaten in their two games in the Super 8 phase - with Lara since admitting that another defeat will be costly to their chances of progression.

The Windies desperately need to pick themselves up against the Sri Lankans, who slipped to a narrow defeat to South Africa in their first Super 8 clash, and Lara has urged his players to work more as a team, particularly when batting.

"We are just not playing well as a team, especially in the batting department," Lara said.

"We're not scoring significant numbers of runs, we've not made 250 in any of our five World Cup matches so far. We need to apply ourselves and need to keep the belief in our ability.

"If we are going to win the World Cup, it's not just going to be [down to] one or two of them, or just me - it has to be the entire team."

Sri Lanka, who also enjoyed three wins in the group stages, are fancied at 1.56 to take the points in Guyana, with the home side available at 2.74.

Despite a promising start to the tournament, West Indies' shortcomings have been highlighted in the Super 8 stage, and they are now on offer at 34 to lift the World Cup, having been matched at a low of 7.4 to small stakes.

Australia are the strong 2.26 favourites to lift the trophy on April 28, ahead of South Africa at 5.4, New Zealand at 6 and Sri Lanka at 8.

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