India set for series win in West Indies

Raina & Co can become the first depleted Indian side to clinch a series in West Indies by winning the third ODI today

India set for series win in West Indies

Raina & Co can become the first depleted Indian side to clinch a series in West Indies by winning the third ODI today

Suresh Raina's challenge was much bigger than what the pundits realised it would beu00a0 -- to win India's first series after the 2011 World Cup triumph. Quite simply, the reputation of the World Champions was at stake when a young Indian team, sans senior players departed on May 31.

Harbhajan Singh (centre) celebrates a West Indies wicket with captain
Suresh Raina and wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel during the first ODI at
the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain on June 6. Pic/AFP

After two comprehensive wins in the five-match ODI series against West Indies, Raina & Co are on the verge of creating some sort of history. If they triumph over Darren Sammy & Co in the third ODI at the Sir Vivian Richards Ground today, Raina's team will become the first depleted Indian side to win a series in the Caribbean.
Regardless of the West Indies Board fielding a not-so strong side due to issues with some of its senior players, one should not take anything away from this Indian team, which is far less experienced than the complete World Cup outfit. As many as seven players were recalled to the national fold for this tour --
S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar and Parthiv Patel.
The venue for today's third ODI has been in the news for all the wrong reasons after the 2009 Test between West Indies and England was abandoned due to an unfit, sandy outfield.

Chase aces
The Indian batsmen seemed to have mastered the conditions pretty well after successfully chasing the targets in both ODIs. All batters, except Yusuf Pathan, have had a decent hit in the middle. While Virat Kohli was the star with his knock of 81 in the second ODI, Shikhar Dhawan (51) and Rohit Sharma's 68 not out bailed the visitors out in the first match.u00a0

There is extra motivation for Raina to win the ongoing ODI series because it will be the first time the Indians win consecutive series in the West Indies. Under skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India won 2-1 in the 2008-09 season. Rahul Dravid's Indians, who won a Test series there for the first time after 1971, failed in the ODI series, losing 1-4 in 2005-06. It was Sourav Ganguly, who did the incredible by winning an ODI series (2-1) in the West Indies for the first time in 2001-02.

However, the most famous of one-day international wins in the West Indies remains the Berbice game in 1983, which in the opinion of several 1983 World Cup stars, gave them the confidence to win over the all-conquering West Indies at the premier event.

As it turned out, India beat the West Indies in two of the three games they played against them in England 1983. Back to Berbice. After putting up a massive 282, India skipper Kapil Dev's all-round performance (72 runs and 2-33) gave the visitors a 27-run win. Over to Antigua!

But ufffd at home, WI still ahead!

Won

India 9

West Indiesu00a0u00a016

No resultu00a0u00a0u00a0 1