The ODI series between West Indies and India draws to a conclusion on Sunday when the 4th and final ODI is played at the wonderful Beausejour Cricket Stadium, St. Lucia. India lead the series 2-1 after a narrow win here on Friday.

A quick re-cap on what’s happened in the series so far:

1st ODI, Sabina Park: India, 339/6 50 overs, West Indies 319 48.1 overs, India won by 20 runs

2nd ODI, Sabina Park: India 188 all out, 48.2 overs, West Indies 192/2 34.1 overs, West Indies won by 8 wickets

3rd ODI, St Lucia: Adverse weather resulted in the 3rd ODI eventually being reduced to 22 overs a side at this venue on Friday. Dhoni won the toss yet again and invited the West Indies to bat.

West Indies posted 186/7 during an innings which included 2 stoppages for rain and then a further stoppage during the Indian innings resulted in India needing 159 to win in 22 overs. Sarwan had top scored for West Indies with 62 off 59 balls whilst Nehra took 3 for 21 in his 5 overs. In reply, India looked to be cruising to victory with Karthik (47) and Gambhir (44) laying a solid foundation. The West Indies bowlers never let India run away with it though and in the end it came down to the last over with India requiring 11 for victory. MS Dhoni smashed a six off Jerome Taylor’s 2nd ball and the Indians were all but home, if not dry. India eventually ran out winners by 6 wickets under the D/L method.

It was tough on the West Indies who had again lost a crucial toss yet the close finish illustrates how little there is between these sides in this series.

After this, the Indian side will no doubt enjoy a 2 month break from cricket before a short triangular tournament prior to the Champions Trophy. We look forward to welcoming them to South Africa in September.

As for West Indies, they will host Bangladesh for 3 test matches, 2 ODI’s and a T20 through July to the early part of August.

The ODI series between West Indies and India is finely balanced as we head into the the 3rd ODI in St Lucia on Friday.

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India need to put a nightmare performance behind them in the 2nd ODI last Sunday when they were comprehensively beaten by 8 wickets. Their top order was taken apart by Jerome Taylor, Ravi Rampaul and Dwayne Bravo as they were dismissed for just 188. It could have been far worse for India who were 7/3 and then 82/8 early doors and they have MS Dhoni (85 off 130) and RP Singh (23 off 75) to thank for saving them from a desperately low total. Dhoni and Singh added 101 for the 9th wicket, Yuvraj Singh who made 35 was the only other batsman to reach double figures.

India’s batting performance was in stark contrast to the display in the 1st ODI when they posted 339 on the same ground. Despite the best efforts of Dhoni and Singh they were still way short of par and WI crashed off the runs in 34.1 overs with Gayle making 64 and Morton finishing 85 not out.

So after winning the first game by 20 runs, India are now all square as we head off to the wonderful Beausejour Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia for a double header to complete the series.

West Indies have won 5, lost 4 and there has been 1 no result in their 10 ODI’s on this ground which was opened in 2002. They last played here in April this year and it didn’t go to plan as they lost a rain affected match by 26 runs to England. That defeat saw England to take the ODI series.

It’s usually a decent track though the long range forecast suggests there is chance of thunderstorms so let’s hope the weather behaves as we should be in for a good contest.

Team news: India may look to give a game to any of Murali Vijay, Subramaniam Badrinath, Pragyan Ojha, Abishek Nayar who have yet to feature in the series.

The remainder of the Indian squad is as follows: MS Dhoni (capt), Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik, Ashish Nehra, Yusuf Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, Praveen Kumar.

The sides remain in St. Lucia to complete the series with a match on Sunday 5th of July.