India v West Indies at Chennai ICC World Cup – India look for win before knockout game

Both teams will look forward to win this game before advancing into knockout stage starting from 23^rd of March 2011. Win here will certainly help the morale of the team going into the quarter final. Win for India will allow them to meet Australia in the quarterfinal and West Indies will play Pakistan but if result goes other way then India will play Sri Lanka and West Indies will play Australia in the quarterfinals.

Going into this game there are lot of question needs to be answered for the Indian. There batting department despite of solid start given by there openers, middle order failed to capitalize on the same. There bowling looked ordinary despite of consistency from Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh.

India will treat this game to fine tune their bowling and batting combination. Because they know one failure can lead to another and they don’t want to repeat the mistakes they have done so far in the earlier games.

Indian fielding is some how improving and that is good sign for the Indians. The opening pair has delivered almost on every occasion in the tournament and that’s why Indians opening pairs are two of the leading run scorer in the tournament.

India has tried various combinations, fans and media have been crying out for the inclusion of offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin — who is yet to play. But Sunday match is likely to give chance to R.Ashwin to play in front of his home crowd.

Batsman Suresh Raina could also play a role, also at his home venue, as India hopes to finally settle on its ideal combination ahead of the quarterfinals — where there will be no more room to experiment.

On the other hand West Indies who entered this tournament as underdogs will look to get a win here and get into the knockout stage with lost of confidence. However they know they have big work load ahead. They need Chris Gayle and K.Pollard to fire to post a challenging total for the Indians to chase down or to achieve the target.

As a bowling unit West Indies has performed well in the tournament with S.Benn and K.Roach performing consistently.

All in all a good game on the card on Sunday.

Pitch & Conditions

The Pitch at Chepauk will be the most spin friendly wicket India came across in this world cup and that will be great news for the Indians. Also fast bowler will get the required reverse swing with the old ball. Team winning the toss is likely to bat first and put runs on the board. Any score from 240-250 will be considered comparative total on this wicket.

Likely Playing XI for both teams (Match is schedule to begin at 14:30 PM India Time)

With injury to dashing opener Virendra Sehwag it’s likely that Suresh Raina may get a chance in place of him. Ashish Nehra fitness is still in doubt so R. Ashwin might get a chance to partner Harbhajan Singh on a wicket which likely to help spinner.

West Indies on the other hand is likely to get into the game with same XI unless S.Chanderpaul declared himself fit which has played against England in the last game.

India: Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni (Captain & WK), Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, R.Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel.

West Indies: Chris Gayle, Devon Smith, Darren Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Kieron Pollard, Darren Sammy (Captain), Devon Thomas (WK), Andre Russell, Sulieman Benn, Kemar Roach, Devendra Bishoo