Dwayne Bravo after scoring his century in Motera on Saturday. (AFP)

Ahmedabad: Brian Lara was looking at the positives after the defeat on Saturday. He felt the performance of the side was still encouraging.

The fact Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo got runs at the top of the order was the most satisfying. “We do depend on the guys upfront to fire. Today Gayle and Bravo did the job for us. Against India it was Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan. It really boosts your confidence. We are going to go into the semi-finals full of self-belief,” said the West Indies captain.

“I thought we got a good total… We were heading in the right direction. The fact that the batsmen stayed there and got the runs was the most satisfying. In the end, maybe we were 15-20 runs short,” Lara added.

Admitting the fact that they should bowled better in the initial 15 overs, Lara saw a silver lining in the bowling, too. “The spinners turned the ball… Things remained equal and England won because they had wickets in hand,” felt Lara.

Andrew Flintoff was all praise for Kevin Pieteresen. “I am very very pleased,” was how the English captain started. “Kevin took the responsibility and showed his class…. He was just fantastic.

“We wanted someone to stay at the wicket. Kevin did it for us. He steadied the ship. We knew his capabilities and he proved it again today.”

Flintoff said he was feeling fine after bowling five overs, the first since his surgery.

“The team’s pride was at stake. We badly wanted to win this match. There was a quiet confidence in the ranks. We believed we could make it and we showed it tonight,” Flintoff remarked.