LAHORE, Nov 13: The West Indies coach Bennett King is hoping his team will save the first Test against Pakistan and is looking to his batsmen to put up a good second innings total to avert a setback.

“It is not an ideal situation we have in the match, but despite all that we will try to save the match,” he told reporters after the third day’s play that saw the tourists struggling at 74 for three in their 2nd innings, requiring a further 205 to avoid the innings defeat.

King said there were mixed performances from his side on the third day but it required a much better effort from the players to save the match in the remaining two days.

“We have to really put in our best efforts to save the Test and I am quite confident that players have the ability to achieve this,” he said.

The seasoned official said that though his team had very little time to adjust from one day cricket to Test matches, he would not use it as an excuse for its ordinary faring at Lahore.

The West Indies coach dismissed the suggestion that his team had under-estimated Pakistan’s second string bowling attack in th absence of banned duo of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif. “This is not correct. They have some good bowlers and we are not under-estimating them at all.” —APP