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ShareSt Lucia: After an initial delay of two hours and five minutes, there was some action at the Beausejour Cricket Ground on Friday. The match was first reduced to a 41-over affair. After 3.3 overs were bowled the skies opened up again. Following more rain, the match was reduced to 39 overs. At the time of going to the press, the match was made a 27-over-a-side game.
The breaks, however, did help the Indians. After letting the West Indies to get off to a flier, the visitors bounced back by taking the wicket of Chris Gayle. The West Indies skipper was dismissed off the first ball after the second break. West Indies were 84 for two in 14 overs.
India had won the toss and decided to field when the showers arrived. India went in with two changes, bringing in Ishant Sharma and Abhishek Nayar in place of Praveen Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja. West Indies went into the match without any changes to their XI.
Ishant Sharma, however, had a rough start. He was at the receiving end of Gayle who hit the Delhi pacer for 19 runs in his first two overs. It was Ashish Nehra who got the better of the West Indies skipper with some extra bounce. The delivery was shot and wide but Gayle only succeeded in getting an edge to wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
With the series locked 1-1, both the teams are expected to go all out for a victory. The Indians, desperate to make amends for their early exit from the Twenty20 World Cup in England last month, have not really looked convincing in both the matches and their perennial weakness to short-pitched stuff has come back to haunt them.
While the visitors snatched a narrow 20-run victory in the first game at the Sabina Park in Kingston, they suffered an embarrassing eight-wicket drubbing in the second match, which will no doubt serve as a morale-booster for the Caribbean team. The huge defeat will act as a wake-up call for Dhoni's bravehearts who had a string of victories to their credit till only a couple of months back. Suddenly, the team finds itself under tremendous pressure.
In the absence of star performers like Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, the top order batting has lacked the firepower and the poor form of Gautam Gambhir has only compounded India's misery. The Indian bowling has also lacked the sting and much will depend on off-spinner Harbhajan Singh to stem the Caribbean run flow. The pacers will also have to bowl in the right areas to be able to put pressure on the West Indian batsmen.
