Desperate Windies searching for victory to halt the rot

Fri, Jun 30, '17

ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC) – Struggling West Indies face powerhouse India in the pivotal third One-Day International here today, desperately needing a victory to halt the rot and make an actual contest of the five-match series.
They enter the first game of the double-header at the Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium 1-0 down following their 105-run defeat in the second ODI in Trinidad last Sunday, and another defeat here will allow India to put one hand on the series trophy.

That defeat at Queen’s Park Oval – after the first game was rained out – highlighted perfectly the gulf between the two teams. In a game reduced to 43 overs per side because of rain, India piled up 310 and West Indies stuttered and stumbled their way to 205 for six in reply.
With much left in the series to play for, however, captain Jason Holder urged improvement especially from his bowlers.

“We’re only 1-0 down after the first game was rain-interrupted. It’s just obviously a situation where we need to tighten up a bit more on our bowling,” the 25-year-old all-rounder said. “Obviously chasing 300-odd in 43 overs is a tough ask. You need to be getting off to a much better start than we did in the last game. We were never able to get off to the good start we were looking for and hence we kept losing wickets in the middle and never got the momentum going into trying to chase 300-odd.”