Chennai: West Indies captain Brian Lara today (Jan 27,2006) insisted that the tourists had not given up hopes after successive defeats in the first two cricket one-dayers and was hungry to win as ever as they go into the third tie against India here today (Jan 27,2007)

"My team is looking forward to remain in the series. It is a build up to our World Cup preparations. It is very important for we do not want the players to lose confidence from tours such as this," Lara said on the eve of the match at the M A Chidambaram stadium.

But Lara was a doubtful starter with a knee injury that kept him out of the second ODI in Cuttack.

"The injury is healing but I am not 100 per cent confident. I will take a decision tomorrow," he said.

India have an unassailable 2-0 lead, having bucked the recent losing trend against the Caribbeans.

The West Indies threatened India's imposing total of 338-3 in the first match but fell short by 20 runs when chasing a modest 189 in the second.

Lara, however, dismissed suggestions that there was something wrong with this team's batting.

"Our batting has definitely improved and in fact, Ramnaresh Sarvan (not part of the touring squad) and Dwayne Bravo have been playing well since their tour to Pakistan and Bravo had batted well here too," the visiting skipper said.