Though India won the series the 5th ODI is an important one for the Indian Team. West Indies's win in the last game came a little too late to retrieve the series for the hosts, but the win combined with the fact that they have finally been granted the wish of playing the visitors on a bouncy track mean that India will have to put in a solid performance to get back to their winning ways in the fifth ODI here on Thursday . Raina had conceded that the line-up's shot selection was poor and the application to forge partnerships was lacking in the game, which India wound up losing by 103 runs. Now Indian fans will be hoping their team returns to being a focused unit and finishes off the one-day series with a bang.
However, there's good news for the Windies' pace hit - they will finally get to play on the bouncy track of Sabina Park, which will no doubt favour their attack. They would like to avoid off their woes, which have left Andre Russell leading the Windies' table- with a mere four wickets in four matches. Meanwhile, India will have to practice hard in order to neuter the challenging effect of the short ball.
The visitors will accordingly be inclined to look to the tremendous form of middle-order batsman Rohit Sharma, who is averaging a phenomenal 200 (which also happens to be his aggregate) in the series thus far. Opener Parthiv Patel is not far behind at 141 runs in the one-day leg of the tour. But the other Indian batsmen will also have to play their part in taking India's innings forward.
However, more than the batting, it is India's attack that appears truly menacing. The first time in the tour that it fell apart was at the loss of the Windies' innings in the last match. How much the spinners will be able to get out of the quicker track is a point of dispute. If they are successful on this surface, it will promise well for them going into the Test series.
Indian leg-break Amit Mishra may have picked up a chart-topping 9 wickets in four matches at an average of 17.00 thus far. Meanwhile, his team-mate Munaf Patel, who has garnered just one wicket less than him, is expected to be in his element on this strip. A lot of the team's fortunes will pivot on how well he bowls at the start and the end of the innings.
Finally, the Windies will have to bring about a transformation in their batting. With a sadly lop-sided line-up where very little substance has been coming from the top-order, the middle and latter order are shouldered with the burden of stabilising, consolidating ahead.
But the final game of the ODI series clearly looks like one between the West Indies bowlers and the Indian batsmen.
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