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Nurse backs WI to win at Sabina

Published:Tuesday | July 4, 2017 | 6:53 PMJermaine Lannaman

West Indies off-spin bowler Ashley Nurse believes the home team has a very good chance of winning the final match at Sabina Park tomorrow and tying their five-match one-day international series against India.

The series is currently being led by India 2-1 after rain caused a no-result in the first encounter.

"The guys are on a high and have gained a lot of confidence from the last game,'' said Nurse, referring to their fourth match, which the West Indies won by 11 runs. They lost the first duel by 105 runs and second by 93 runs.

"Therefore, once we come out, and tick all the boxes, I have no doubt that we can win the match, and level the series,'' he added.

The West Indies, who held their first training session at Sabina Park yesterday, will enter the showdown hoping to improve their batting displays so far.

In the second match, the regional men, chasing 311 to win in Trinidad and Tobago were restricted to 205 for six, while in the third game in Antigua, they could only manage 158 in search of 252 for victory.

There was also a less-than-ideal batting display in the fourth match also in Antigua where they scored 189 for nine before restricting the Indians to 178.

These batting displays, according to Nurse, can be corrected and with the series now on the line, he is hoping the batsmen can rise to the occasion.

"Not a lot of people expected us to do well in the series,'' he said. "Everybody expected us to get five-love. To therefore be in a position where we can share the series is a testament to our commitment and belief."

Nurse, who along with leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo, have been spearheading the West Indies one-day spin bowling attack in recent times, has so far taken 26 wickets in 17 matches at an average of 26.04 and an economy rate of 4.56. He has best figures of four for 62.