GROS ISLET, St Lucia (CMC):

West Indies will have to come from behind for the second time in the series if they are to beat India and square the four-match contest in the final one-day international here today.

They head into the match at the Beausejour Stadium trailing 2-1, after losing the first match of the double-header by six wickets at the same venue on Friday, and know that nothing but a victory will now suffice.

As usual, the regional side chose the most difficult route. They lost a high-scoring opening match at Sabina Park in Jamaica by 20 runs before rebounding to emphatically rout the Indians by eight wickets at the same venue two days late in a low-scoring encounter.

2-1 lead

Faced with a prospect of taking an unbeatable 2-1 lead with a win on Friday, West Indies conceded 11 runs from the final over to leave themselves with all to do in order to take some honour from the series.

While invoking the memories of his side's outstanding performance in the second match of the series, captain Chris Gayle said they already knew what was required.

"India know they cannot lose the series so they will be confident as they come at us," Gayle explained yesterday.

"We have to do the work on Sunday and we will be looking to square the series, so we will be looking to come back and have a good game similar to the second game in Jamaica last Sunday. At this point in time we will be looking to stick to our plans."

Sticking to their plans might mean a number of things for the Windies, who have been characteristically erratic. While their fast bowlers were explosive in the second match at Sabina Park, they were all wayward and expensive on Friday, allowing India's top order to get the visitors away to a fine start in their run chase.

There were no fireworks from the out-of-sorts Jerome Taylor, whose three overs and five balls cost 39 runs, nor from Ravi Rampaul, who sent down four overs for 26 runs.

Gayle will be, therefore, expecting his attack to stick to their plans of containing India's batting juggernaut led by the devastating left-hander Yuvraj Singh, along with captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir and Denesh Karthik in tow.

West Indies' batting has shown signs all series of coming to life. In the opening ODI, they got above 300 and then lost just two wickets in chasing down 188 in the second match.

Had the Windies not been harassed by the rain on Friday, their batters could have got far more than their eventual 186 for seven from their 27 overs, and Gayle will be a lot more confident in this department.

ominous form

He has looked in ominous form with scores of 37, 64 and 27 but will want to finish the series by converting one of these into something big to fuel a Windies victory.

His opening partner Runako Morton has been in impressive form with 149 runs from three innings and, along with Ramnaresh Sarwan (122 runs) and Shiv Chanderpaul, will be expected to provide the bulk of the runs.

Gayle said India held no fears for the Windies and he was confident they could beat them again.

"We will be looking to get a decent total if we have to bat first and then look to restrict them," Gayle said.