West Indies fielding coach Nic Pothas has highlighted the importance of staying focused through an entire ODI match if players hope to beat the best in the world.

Speaking at a press conference ahead of the final ODI in the five-match series against India, the former South African international highlighted that the West Indies are a ‘very young team’.

‘When you play at this level, it’s always going to come down to execution over a long period of time. We’ve seen that we can execute for short periods of time – the challenge is always going to be to execute over 100 overs. If you’re going to beat India or England or Australia or Pakistan, you’ve got to execute for a 100 overs. And that takes physical ability, it takes skill, it takes mental ability. And fitness certainly comes in too.’

Pothas highlighted that there is a lot of cricket coming up and, consequently, the physical fitness of the players will be important to aid their recovery between matches.

‘It’s going to aid your decision-making and it’s going to aid your execution. So our young guys are learning all the time and they’re having to learn at the international level, which is never easy. But they’re getting better all the time and most importantly, they’re open to that learning. So we’re very positive on them.’

The West Indies have played superbly away from home to keep the India star players in check and enter the last match of the series with a chance to level things at 2-2.

"We are very positive about tomorrow…" WINDIES Assistant Coach, Nic Pothas, speaks to the media ahead of the 5th ODI. #WIvsIND #WindiesCricket #LetsGoWindies pic.twitter.com/k7JQncoMSZ

— Windies Cricket (@windiescricket) October 31, 2018