Windies look to tie ODI series

After winning the fourth match and opening-up the series, the West Indies will be seeking back-to-back triumphs in a bid to tie their five-match series with India and share the Royal Stag Cup one-day international series against India at Sabina Park today.

Down and virtually out after losing the second and third match-ups following a rain-induced no result in the first encounter, the Jason Holder-captained West Indies rallied to post an 11-run win in Antigua on Sunday.

This, according to Holder, and the coaching staff, has thus enhanced the confidence of the outfit, and with many expecting an Indian series win, it gives the team a chance of showing that it is improving.

"We fought well in the last game to come back and win and keep ourselves alive in the series,'' said Holder, shortly after the team held their final training session at the match venue yesterday.

"We just need to get our batting consistent and continue to strive to play a complete all-round game, and this match is another opportunity to do that.''

Although winning after a sub par batting effort in the fourth match on Sunday, the regional side is unlikely to make changes, according to Holder.

In his pre-match interview, Holder noted that of the batsmen from the win in Antigua some are still new and finding their feet, and as such deserve an extended run, while of the others most have shown that they can deliver.

He said opener Kyle Hope, the older brother of batsman Shai Hope, for example, will be playing in his third one-dayer, while outstanding Test batsman Roston Chase, who has been slow in transition to the 50-overs format, has only contested seven.

The other specialist batsmen in the team are opener Evin Lewis and Jason Mohammed with all-rounders Rovman Powell and Holder in the lower middle order.

NO CHANGES

"I can't really forsee any changes at the top of the batting order at the moment, it's just for them to go out and show us what they got,'' Holder expressed.

"We need the batsmen to come to the fore. We have not yet got a hundred in the series so far and that has to be the objective for each batsman.''

Meanwhile, looking at the prospect of squaring the series and sharing the Cup, Holder said it would be a pleasure for the players.

"We have been fighting from the get go as no one gave a chance of doing well when the series started. It would mean a lot to us,'' he pointed out.

"It is, therefore, good to see the guys rallying, and still believing and it is now up to us to level the series.'' India have, according to fast bowler Kuldeep Yadav, analysed where they went wrong in the fourth match defeat and are looking to bounce back.

"The batting conditions in the last game were testing and we did not handle ourselves as well as we are capable of. However, since then we have looked into the situation and come the final game are looking to correct things,'' he said.

West Indies squad (from): Jason Holder (captain), Devendra Bishoo, Kyle Hope, Roston Chase, Miguel Cummins, Shai Hope, Alzarri Joseph, Evin Lewis, Jason Mohammed, Ashley Nurse, Sunil Ambris, Rovman Powell, Kesrick Williams

India squad (from): Virat Kohli(captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, Ajinkya Rahane, M.S. Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Dinesh Karthik.