GROS ISLET, St Lucia (CMC):

After splitting the opening double-header in Jamaica, West Indies will be gunning for India in the third one-day international here today, to ensure they cannot lose the four-match series.

In what has been a topsy-turvy series to date, West Indies lost the opening ODI at Sabina Park by 20 runs last Friday in a high-scoring affair, before brushing aside the visitors by eight wickets in the second match two days later at the same venue.

West Indies will now look to sustain their winning momentum which could see them taking an important 2-1 lead in the series at the Beausejour Stadium.

"Whichever team wins tomorrow cannot lose the Digicel Series so it is a very important game," West Indies captain Chris Gayle emphasised yesterday.

Scene of the battle

With the scene of the battle set for the Beausejour Stadium, West Indies will be anxious to reverse their recent record at the ground which has seen them lose three of their last four matches.

Only three months ago, they went down here to England in the deciding match of the five-game series and will want to erase those memories with an emphatic win today.

Gayle said he expected the ground to favour batsmen, and that he expected another high-scoring match similar to the opening clash at Sabina Park where the Windies were set 340 to win.

"It will be a good competitive game, similar to the first Digicel ODI at Sabina Park," the giant left-hander surmised.

"St Lucia is always a good wicket and I expect a lot of runs to be scored on this wicket."

The match will be played under a small cloud of controversy with local hero Darren Sammy having been overlooked for the series.

Made the rounds

The issue has made the rounds on radio call-in programmes with St Lucians expressing their dissatisfaction with the move by selectors to omit Sammy from the 13-man squad.

Jamaican all-rounder David Bernard Jr was chosen ahead of the experienced Sammy for the first two matches and then retained for the final two games here.

Gayle was quick to rubbish any suggestions that there were any off-the-field issues influencing Sammy's non-selection, and said he believed the enterprising all-rounder would rebound strongly.

"Darren Sammy will be back. It was a 50-50 call [to leave him out]," Gayle pointed out.

Gayle will lead the Windies offensive, and will be backed up by the trio of Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shiv Chanderpaul and the in-form Runako Morton, all of whom have been among the runs in the series.

Bowling attack

Their bowling attack, which shone in the last game to limit India to 188 all out, will once again depend on the efforts of fast bowlers Jerome Taylor and Ravi Rampaul, with left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn providing the main slow bowling option.

If India's batting juggernaut of Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rohit Sharma fires, West Indies could find themselves bundled, and Gayle said he was well aware of this threat.

He identified Yuvraj as the danger man, on the heels of his brilliant 132 from 102 balls which engineered India's win in the opening ODI of the series.

The match is set to bowl off at 9:30 a.m. (Ja time 8:30 a.m.).

SQUADS:

WEST INDIES - Chris Gayle (captain), Denesh Ramdin (vice-captain), Lionel Baker, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Sulieman Benn, David Bernard, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Runako Morton, Ravi Rampaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome Taylor.

INDIA - MS Dhoni (captain), Yuvraj Singh, Subramaniam Badrinath, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik, Praveen Kumar, Abhishek Nayar, Ashish Nehra, Pragyan Ojha, Yusuf Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, Murali Vijay.