If the confident Indian cricket team enters the third ODI on Sunday, it will be their aim to win the 10th consecutive bilateral series against the West Indies. West Indies had registered a resounding win in the first ODI, but India returned with élan by winning the second match in Visakhapatnam.
In the second ODI in the series, Skipper Virat Kohli did not click but all the top order batsmen performed brilliantly and Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav hit a hat-trick. India won the second match by 107 runs. The next match will begin at 1:30 PM.
Records for India: Jayasuriya on Rohit’s radar
Rohit Sharma, who scored 159 runs in the second match, is a mere nine runs behind the record of highest run-scorer Sanat Jayasuriya in all formats.
KL Rahul scored a century, too, in the first wicket partnership of 220 runs. Rahul, who started the innings from the World Cup match against Pakistan in June, has confirmed his place by performing brilliantly against the West Indies. Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant scored as well.
In the bowling department, Delhi fast bowler Navdeep Saini may get a chance to replace Deepak Chahar.
India’s performance in fielding did not go as expected. Iyer did run out Shimron Hetmyer with a brilliant throw but Chahar missed the catches of Nicholas Pooran and Shai Hope. Kohli said after the match, “We have to do better catching. You have to overcome your mistakes. Fielding needs to be enjoyed.”
The pitch at the Barabati Stadium will help batsmen like that in Visakhapatnam did. Hetmyer and Hope kept the Indian bowlers under pressure in Chennai where Iyer would have played a big innings once again if he did not have the best throw in the second match.
In the IPL auction, Delhi Capitals bought Hetmyer for Rs 7.5 crore. His partner Sheldon Cottrell was bought by Kings XI Punjab for eight and a half crores. At the same time, no one has bid on Hope who scored the most runs after Rohit this year. He would like to prove his usefulness by playing a big innings in this match. Kieran Pollard’s team won the toss in the first two ODIs and decided to bowl.
Here too, keeping in mind the dew, the teams will want to avoid bowling in the second innings. The West Indies team will be trying to win a bilateral series after 13 years with India.
India that lost the bilateral series to Australia in March has never lost two consecutive series in the last 15 years.
The teams
India: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant, Shivam Dubey, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur
West Indies: Kieran Pollard (captain), Sunil Ambareesh, Shai Hope, Khari Pierre, Roston Chase, Aljari Joseph, Sheldon Cottrell, Brandon King, Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Evin Lewis, Romario Shepherd, Jason Holder, Keemo Pal, Hayden Walsh Junior
