What

The second of the five One-Day Internationals between West Indies and India

When

June 8, 2011. The game begins at 6:30 pm, IST.

Where

Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad. Although as many as four batsmen [Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma] got to their individual half-centuries in the first ODI, it certainly wasn’t easy for any of them. Sharma, who had the best strike-rate of the four [90.66], even admitted that the wicket was not an easy one for a batsman to play his shots. On the evidence of the T20 match and the first ODI played here, the spinners have benefitted the most, which is why the Indians are undefeated in this series thus far.

The Teams

West Indies have struggled with their batting. The problem starts with the opening batsmen. Lendl Simmons played a horrible shot to get out in the first ODI. On a wicket that is not conducive to stroke-play, grafting would be a better approach instead of attempting to hit the opposition bowlers out of the park. Sarwan and Samuels were prepared to do that and the results showed. However, until they get more support from the remaining West Indies batsman, the hosts could once again find their batting to be their biggest weakness.

India may be ahead in this series but they were anything but clinical in the first game. The bowlers did well on a wicket that suited them but the batsmen still showed inexperience. Dhawan was responsible for his own dismissal when he was set for a big score. Had Sharma fallen to one of those many deliveries he survived at the start of his innings, the match could well have taken a different turn. Like their counterparts, the Indian batsmen, too, need to be circumspect and play each delivery on its merit.

The best chance the West Indies to have to square this series is to bat first and put a total in the range of 240-250. With Ravi Rampaul, Anthony Martina and Devendra Bishoo doing a good job for the hosts on the bowling front, the inexperienced Indian batting line-up might chasing such a total a bit of a struggle.

Also, with the West Indies having picked their One-Day squad only for the first two ODIs, Kieron Pollard should be expected to replace Dwayne Bravo.

Venue Stats:

West Indies – played 50, won -27, lost – 19, Tied – 0, NR – 4 – win percentage – 54.00

India – played 13, won -4, lost – 9, Tied – 0, NR – 0 – win percentage – 30.77

Highest Total: India 413/5 in 50.0 overs v Bermuda - March 19, 2007

Lowest Total: Canada 75 all out in 28.5 overs v Zimbabwe – May 16, 2006

Best Individual score:Brian Charles Lara (West Indies) – 146* (134 balls) v New Zealand- March 30, 1996

Best bowling figures in an innings:Scott Styris (New Zealand) 7.0-0-25-6 v West Indies – June 12, 2002

The Squads:

India: Suresh Raina (c), Parthiv Patel (wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Subramaniam Badrinath, Yusuf Pathan, Virat Kohli, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, R Ashwin, Munaf Patel, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra and Vinay Kumar

West Indies:Darren Sammy (c), Lendl Simmons, Ramnaresh Sarwan , Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Carlton Baugh (wk), Kirk Edwards, Anthony Martin, Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels and Devendra Bishoo