India and West Indies will look to play an aggressive brand of cricket to make most of batting-friendly conditions in third and final ODI today
India skipper Virat Kohli during a training session on the eve of the third and final ODI v West Indies in Cuttack on Saturday. Pic/AFP
Cuttack: India have everything going their way as they head into the third and final ODI against the West Indies here on Sunday eyeing a 10th straight bilateral series win over the Caribbean side."
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The West Indies took the home side by surprise in the opening ODI in Chennai to go one-up in the three-match series. But India, riding an all-round display, came back strongly to restore parity in the second match.
Barring a rare duck from skipper Virat Kohli, the Indian top-order fired in unison at Visakhapatnam, before hat-trick hero Kuldeep Yadav sliced through the West Indies line-up for a comprehensive 107-run victory.
Record for Rohit
Three days after his blazing 159, Rohit Sharma stood just nine runs short of eclipsing former Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya's 22-year-old record of being the highest run-scorer as an opener across all formats.
KL Rahul also struck a sublime century in a 220-run opening stand to firmly stake his claim as a long-term opener for India. Opening the innings since the India-Pakistan World Cup clash in June, Rahul has made steady progress. In recent assignments against the West Indies, he has been a revelation, scoring runs at will.
Then, the duo of Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant chipped in with brisk knocks, and they would like to end the year on a positive note.
Saini set to debut
In bowling, Delhi pacer Navdeep Saini is in line to make his ODI debut in the absence of the injured Deepak Chahar, who was ruled out of the match with a lower back problem.
The fielding, though, has failed to match the high standards India have set in recent years.
While Iyer's effort to dismiss Shimron Hetmyer was eye-catching, Chahar dropped a sitter off Nicholas Pooran and grassed Shai Hope for a duck at slip, something that attracted Kohli's attention.
The pitch at the Barabati Stadium is going to be similar to the one in Visakhapatnam, offering plenty of runs. The West Indies, at the same time, will be keen to end a 13-year long wait to win against India in a bilateral ODI series. While the hosts, who lost to Australia 2-3 in their last bilateral series in March, will have their reputation at stake.
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