Daijiworld Media Network

Indore, Dec 8: The India-West Indies series is wide open, with the visitors pulling off a thrilling 16-run victory in the third ODI. With two more games to go, the series could belong to anybody, and if the visitors win the fourth match being held at Indore on Thursday December 8, the final will be a do-or-die for both teams.

For India's part, the series so far has belonged to Rohit Sharma, who has come very near to scoring a century on at least two occasions. It would be interesting to see if he could prove himself yet again and go all the way to cross the magical three-figure mark. Along with Virat Kohli, the youngster has shouldered the responsibility of the Indian innings where others failed.

India's middle order may perhaps get a boost with the return of Irfan Pathan. Though bowling is his main strength, he has proved in the past that he can be pretty handy with the bat as well. He is replacing Umesh Yadav.

India has already won the toss and elected to bat. The curator has promised a pitch full of runs, and though there is a little grass on the wicket which will help the fast bowlers early on, the match is expected to be a run feast.

For West Indies, the lower order has to the rescue twice, with Russell, Sammy and Rampaul rising to the occasion. However, the tail is always shaky, and unless the top order comes into form, nothing definite can be expected. With Darren Bravo ruled out of the fourth ODI due to hamstring injury, the visitors have their task cut out.

The bowlers have done better than the batsmen for West Indies, especially Sunil Narine, the mystery spinner who made a good start to his international career and picked up 2 for 34 from his 10 overs in his debut match at Ahmedabad.

All said and done, we may well be in for another cliffhanger of a match.

Teams:

India (Playing XI): Virender Sehwag(c), Parthiv Patel(w), Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Vinay Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun, Rahul Sharma

West Indies (Playing XI): Lendl Simmons, Danza Hyatt, Marlon Samuels, Kieran Powell, Denesh Ramdin(w), Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell, Darren Sammy(c), Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Sunil Narine