lCANBERRA

Darren Bravo made the highest score of his limited-overs career on his 24th birthday, but still ended on the losing side as the West Indies went under to Australia in the high-scoring third One-Day International yesterday. But Bravo is still hoping that his side can avoid an Australian clean sweep.

"It is very important for us to bounce back and play with pride in those two matches," he said following his side's 39-run defeat here.

"We don't want to come here and lose 5-0 so there is still a lot to do. We are going to go back to the drawing board and look to understand where we went wrong and get it right."

The classy left-hander was moved up to the No.3 position in the batting order and made 86 off 96 balls to keep the Windies in the game until the very end.

Bravo shared in a third-wicket stand of 114 with his older brother Dwayne, who made 51 off 50 balls on a good pitch at the Manuka Oval.

"I thought Dwayne and myself played pretty well, we had a decent partnership. However, we needed to bat a bit longer, obviously spending more time in the middle. As a team we showed great character tonight. Chasing 300-plus runs was going to be difficult, but we stayed in the game up until the very end," Bravo said.

"I believe we can keep our heads high. From the start we felt we had a good chance of winning. Knowing [the power] we have at the back-end with the likes of Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard and the captain Darren Sammy, we felt once we got the right kind of start we could set-up the game."

Asked about how best the West Indies' tormentor in the series, left-arm pacer Mitchell Johnson could be handled, Bravo said playing with a straight bat was the remedy.

Starc has succeeded in outsmarting the West Indies batsmen with successive five-wicket hauls in the first and second games of the five-match ODI series which the Windies lost.

Bravo has cautioned his colleagues against playing across the line to Starc whose considerable swing has earned him figures of five for 20 and five for 32.

"He is bowling well. He is bowling at pretty good pace. He is swinging the ball so I think it's important for us to play as straight as possible. Don't try to play across the line of the ball and that would put us in bad stead," said Bravo.

"So it's very important for us to keep the bat as straight as possible and obviously give ourselves time in the wicket because I think as long as we give ourselves time in the middle the runs will come. I am sure as long as we continue doing that I don't see any reason why we can't counteract Mitchell Starc".

Bravo, who scored 11 in the first ODI, was bowled by Starc for 14 runs in the second.

He was also among three West Indians taking magnificent catches on a brilliant fielding day for the tourists in the second ODI.

Bravo threw himself to his right at cover point to pluck a sizzling cut by Aaron Finch out of the air.

"It was just a matter of me trying to keep my eyes on the ball for as long as possible. I believed he hit that one extremely hard and it was a catch that I believed had to stick," Bravo explained.

"It was a great feeling and obviously getting a wicket for West Indies and putting us in a good position".