India target series win
AHMEDABAD: Apart from furnishing a few battling performers to muster up runs or wickets or for the fledgling array of newbies to gain experience ahead of the excruciating trip to Australia, the series has been dominated by India.
The hosts will hope to maintain the winning momentum and clinch the series as they take on West Indies in the third ODI here on Monday.
However, the parity of the contest was restored through the absence of half a dozen Indian cricketers ' either through injury or rest or in Harbhajan's case poor form ' who featured in the epochal World Cup triumph, saving the series from being a morose, one-sided mismatch.
A vigorous but insufficient, and sometimes derisory, Caribbean team is no match for a full-strength Indian side.
But even with as inexperienced a side as this, India would believe in stretching their home record, and buckling another series at a venue which triggered their World Cup ambitions, half a year ago.
Lest their batsmen are affected by a slouchy complacency, evidenced in Cuttack, the West Indians, despite their diligence and perseverance, would struggle to defy another drubbing.
On a personal note, India would want a brace of big knocks from skipper Virender Sehwag, who has frittered promising starts, often at inopportune junctures.
Since their chequered tour to England, Sehwag hasn't posted a hundred in any format since his 175 against Bangladesh. Ditto for Gautam Gambhir, his opening partner in Tests.
The Delhiite has gone 18 ODIs without a hundred. Even if the quality of the opposition isn't superlative, getting runs prior to the Australian tour is imperative for India's most successful opening pair in Tests.
While India wouldn't want to make sweeping changes until the series is won, Parthiv Patel is living on borrowed time, and unless he launches into his starts, Wriddhiman Saha could usurp his spot in shorter versions, too. With five and zero to his name, Suresh Raina, too hasn't prospered.
Rohit Sharma's unprecedented maturity bodes well for the side, as it was more mental than technical issues that had encumbered his career thus far. Virat Kohli, as he had been since his debut, exemplified his capacity to anchor run-chases (five of his eight hundreds have come thus).
More than the Indians, the Caribbeans would urgently require their under-fire batsmen to fire so as to defy the hosts another series win.
Lacking in the experience of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, they have wilted under the slightest whiff of pressure; the inability to maneuver the strike has aggravated their woes, prompting the lower-order batsmen to retrieve them from humiliation. But such a knock as Ravi Rampaul's can't be expected every day.
Besides, going in without a frontline spinner isn't the most logical strategy on sub-continent pitches. Further baffling is their restrain to bench Sunil Narine, whose variations tricked batsmen in the Champions League, wherein he plucked 10 wickets from six matches at a stifling economy rate of 5.85. Their catching has been bizarre, too.
The West Indians, so far, have shown considerable fighting skills, but those haven't amounted to points. And unless they infuse discipline into the batting and vigour into their fielding, another heady collapse awaits them in Ahmedabad, a dry strip that has traditionally aided stroke-play.
AHMEDABAD: Apart from furnishing a few battling performers to muster up runs or wickets or for the fledgling array of newbies to gain experience ahead of the excruciating trip to Australia, the series has been dominated by India.
The hosts will hope to maintain the winning momentum and clinch the series as they take on West Indies in the third ODI here on Monday.
However, the parity of the contest was restored through the absence of half a dozen Indian cricketers ' either through injury or rest or in Harbhajan's case poor form ' who featured in the epochal World Cup triumph, saving the series from being a morose, one-sided mismatch.
A vigorous but insufficient, and sometimes derisory, Caribbean team is no match for a full-strength Indian side.
But even with as inexperienced a side as this, India would believe in stretching their home record, and buckling another series at a venue which triggered their World Cup ambitions, half a year ago.
Lest their batsmen are affected by a slouchy complacency, evidenced in Cuttack, the West Indians, despite their diligence and perseverance, would struggle to defy another drubbing.
On a personal note, India would want a brace of big knocks from skipper Virender Sehwag, who has frittered promising starts, often at inopportune junctures.
Since their chequered tour to England, Sehwag hasn't posted a hundred in any format since his 175 against Bangladesh. Ditto for Gautam Gambhir, his opening partner in Tests.
The Delhiite has gone 18 ODIs without a hundred. Even if the quality of the opposition isn't superlative, getting runs prior to the Australian tour is imperative for India's most successful opening pair in Tests.
While India wouldn't want to make sweeping changes until the series is won, Parthiv Patel is living on borrowed time, and unless he launches into his starts, Wriddhiman Saha could usurp his spot in shorter versions, too. With five and zero to his name, Suresh Raina, too hasn't prospered.
Rohit Sharma's unprecedented maturity bodes well for the side, as it was more mental than technical issues that had encumbered his career thus far. Virat Kohli, as he had been since his debut, exemplified his capacity to anchor run-chases (five of his eight hundreds have come thus).
More than the Indians, the Caribbeans would urgently require their under-fire batsmen to fire so as to defy the hosts another series win.
Lacking in the experience of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, they have wilted under the slightest whiff of pressure; the inability to maneuver the strike has aggravated their woes, prompting the lower-order batsmen to retrieve them from humiliation. But such a knock as Ravi Rampaul's can't be expected every day.
Besides, going in without a frontline spinner isn't the most logical strategy on sub-continent pitches. Further baffling is their restrain to bench Sunil Narine, whose variations tricked batsmen in the Champions League, wherein he plucked 10 wickets from six matches at a stifling economy rate of 5.85. Their catching has been bizarre, too.
The West Indians, so far, have shown considerable fighting skills, but those haven't amounted to points. And unless they infuse discipline into the batting and vigour into their fielding, another heady collapse awaits them in Ahmedabad, a dry strip that has traditionally aided stroke-play.
News Posted: 5 December, 2011
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