Ahmedabad, Dec 4 (IANS): India would look to seal the series against the West Indies when they they clash in the third One-dayer at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium in Motera here Monday.
For the visitors, it will be their last chance to keep the five-match series alive. The Carribbean team has given a good account of themselves in the two ODIs but inconsistency has brought their downfall.
After losing the second match, despite bouncing back in a stellar fashion, West Indies captain Darren Sammy's blank expression said it all. "We just can't get over the line though. Sooner rather than later we can get that final push."
"We'll keep our head up and come strongly at the Indians again," Sammy said.
For that, West Indies will have to sort out their batting problem that has troubled them througout the Test and ODI series. Another inexplicable collpase at Visakhapatnam left them tottering at 5-163. Lendl Simmons and Ravi Rampaul bailed the team out with gritty knocks. Rampaul smashed an unbeaten 86, hitting the Indian bowlers all over the park.
India had a shaky start with stand-in captain Virender Sehwag, Parthiv Patel and Gautam Gambhir leaving early. But Virat Kohli and Rohit sharma played with maturity to see the team home. Kohli hit his eighth ODI century while Sharma again showed that he has learnt his lessons after being dropped.
Another high point for India was the bowling of the pacers. Youngsters Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar and Varun Aaron bowled with pace and swing, exploiting the conditions, and pinning down the West Indies batsmen.
Sehwag may not be scoring runs, but his captaincy has come as a whip of fresh air. Quite like his batting, he has been aggressive with his captaincy. He always had fielders in catching positions that put pressure on the West Indies batsmen. There were no easy runs on offer.
Teams:
India: Virender Sehwag (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Parthiv Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Abhimanyu Mithun, R.Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Rahul Sharma
West Indies: Lendl Simmons, Adrian Barath, Marlon Samuels, Darren Bravo, Danza Hyatt, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Darren Sammy (captain), Andre Russell, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Anthony Martin, Sunil Narine, Kieran Powell, Jason Mohammed.