Hope floats for Windies against Kohli-powered India

OverviewIndia v Windies
3rd ODI
Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune
Saturday, 27 October, 1:30PM local time, 08:00 AM GMT

The second ODI was an excellent one in so many ways. There were 642 runs scored, with 157 of them coming from Virat Kohli’s blade. When the India captain got to 81, he became the quickest in history to score 10,000 ODI runs.

There were miserly spells of bowling from the spinners of both sides to add a bit of intrigue. And Shai Hope then topped it all off with a 134-ball 123*, not quite topping Kohli but taking the game deep and tying the game off the last ball.

Quite the perfect ODI game. And that has added a buzz around the third ODI, to be played in Pune on Saturday.

Team totals of 320 have been topped on each occasion in the two matches so far. Some followers might not have expected that looking at the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s ODI Team Rankings, where India are No.2, and at home, and the Windies are No.9. But while the first ODI was somewhat one-sided, with India topping the Windies’ 322/8 with 47 balls in hand, the second has whetted the appetite.

For India, Kohli has reigned supreme with back-to-back centuries, while Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu have done exceedingly well with the bat too. For the Windies, the standout batsmen have been Shimron Hetymer and Hope.

With the ball, the star performers have been the spinners. Yuzvendra Chahal is on top of the wicket-takers’ chart, with four from two outings, and has also kept things tight with an economy rate of 5.20. But all of Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja for India and Ashley Nurse and Devendra Bisoo for the Windies have been solid.

A bit of a change for India is that Mohammed Shami has been left out of the last three games, while Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have been brought back. With Bumrah, the No.1 bowler in the rankings, in the mix, India have an added advantage.

India are ahead in the series, and looking at Kohli’s form, they must be the favourites at this stage to go 2-0 up in Pune. But this has been a good contest for the most part, with the Windies not taking a backward step, and the third ODI promises to be the same.

Key players

**Yuzvendra Chahal (India):**Of late, Chahal has been overshadowed by his wrist-spin twin Yadav, but he has been excellent in this series with 3/41 and 1/63. He isn’t easy to get away, though Hope & Co did a good job of it in the second game. Chahal, and his partnerships with the other spinners, will be crucial.

**Shimron Hetmyer (Windies):**The 21-year-old is a man in form. Hetmyer was among the runs in the Caribbean Premier League and though the Test series didn’t go too well for him, scores of 106 and 94 in the two ODIs. There are good signs with Hetmyer, and he’ll hope to build on his reputation in the rest of the series.

Conditions

It should be warm in the day and pleasant in the evening in Pune. It’s a pitch for the batsmen, as most ODI venues around India are, but the last time they played a 50-over international here, almost exactly a year ago, Kumar and Bumrah shared five wickets between them to keep New Zealand to 230/9.

Squads

**India:**Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Rishabh Pant, MS Dhoni (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Khaleel Ahmed, Umesh Yadav, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey

**Windies:**Jason Holder (c), Fabian Allen, Sunil Ambris, Devendra Bishoo, Chanderpaul Hemraj, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope (wk), Alzarri Joseph, Kieran Powell, Ashley Nurse, Keemo Paul, Rovman Powell, Kemar Roach, Marlon Samuels, Oshane Thomas, Obed McCoy