West Indies go in search of their own little bit of history on Wednesday when they look to secure their ODI series against India at the first time of asking, when the two sides meet for the second ODI in Visakhapatnam.
India haven’t lost successive home bilateral ODI series in more than 15 years but that is the fate awaiting them if they fail to level the series here. If they can turn things around and win though it sets up a fascinating decider in Cuttack on Sunday.
India
I think it is fairly obvious to say it wasn’t the best Indian performance in the opening match. They never really hit top pelt with the bat and with the ball they looked toothless against a West Indies side who had a plan and executed it to perfection. I wouldn’t like to say whether they took liberties with their opponents in that opening game, but if they did they were soon put in their place, and a dramatic improvement is needed here.
It is unlike India to not get early wickets in this format with the ball. Usually that is a commodity that comes fairly naturally to them but we saw exactly what can happen if they don’t come along. They need to get stuck in again at the top of the order else their spinners will just get milked again. The other thing they could do with is some bigger runs with the bat. That is nothing new to India though so it would be a surprise if they don’t get it right.
West Indies
You could be forgiven for thinking that the West Indies didn’t have such a controlled performance in them as the one they displayed in that opening match, but it is not only to their credit that they did, but it also lays down a marker for their levels of performance moving forward. The big thing for them is how it was their exciting youngsters who produced the big displays. That suggests the Caribbean men can be a force in this format once again.
Although the batting of Shai Hope and Shimron Hetmyer got all the plaudits, we shouldn’t underestimate the quality on show from their bowling attack. It benefitted Kieron Pollard that he had such a number of options and that is likely to be the case here. The big thing for West Indies is that there could be even more to come yet too. They must continue to justify the hype over them now though and not lose this series tamely.
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Team News
India will repel claims that they took West Indies lightly in the opening match, and whether they did or they didn’t they are not likely to do so again so expect Yuzvendra Chahal to be back into the side. Ravi Jadeja could be the one to step aside.
West Indies are still monitoring the fitness of Evin Lewis but if he is fit to return then he could do so at the expense of Sunil Ambris. If he is still out then there is no need for the tourists to change a winning and successful line up.
Betting
These two sides played out an ODI in Visakhapatnam just over a year ago and it ended in a tie when both teams scored 321 with India playing their main spinners and still not coming out on top in the game. This looks a much better West Indies side as well so there is a genuine case for taking the tourists to win this match but I’m expecting a bounce back from India so I’ll take a side market here.
That comes in the form of the total runs where the 550.5 line looks on the low side. This is a good batting wicket, unlike the one in Chennai where these two sides already covered this amount. There were 642 runs when the two sides met here last year and actually in the eight ODIs on this ground four of them have covered this total. We’ve seen all tour that the bowlers are unable to stem the flow of runs. I don’t think they’ll do that here either.
Tips
WON – Back Over 550.5 runs for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Betway
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