WI drop Hinds, bring in Morton, Edwards

The Digicel third ODI against South Africa bowls off today at the Kensington Oval in Barbados with the Proteas one game away from taking the five-match series. The visitors hold a 2-0 lead after convincing eight-wicket wins in the back-to-back ODIs in Jamaica over the weekend.

Edwards was rested after the Test series and convenor of selectors Michael ‘Joey’ Carew said one of the fastest bowlers in the region should lift the potency of the attack.

"We need to put the opposition under pressure a lot more than we have done in the first two games," Carew said yesterday. "With this squad we are looking forward to a positive result." Edwards has taken 12 wickets in four ODIs. Opening batsman Wavell Hinds, who has struggled since his 213 in the first Test in Guyana a month ago, was dropped and replaced by Leeward Islands born Runako Morton, who is married to a Trinidadian and lives in that country. Morton’s inclusion is an interesting one. The right-handed batsman played the last of his two one-dayers in February 2002, and fell out of favour with selectors when pulling out of the Champions Trophy that year after lying about the death of his grandmother.

Morton’s only two appearances for West Indies were against Pakistan in February 2002. Hinds’ spot at the top of the order could go to fellow Jamaican Xavier Marshall, who made his ODI debut in January against Australia.

Victory today will award South Africa the one-day series but one more win will see them move up the ICC rankings. A 4-1 series verdict would take them past Pakistan to fourth place. "I am really proud of what the players have achieved. They improved in every match," said Proteas coach Ray Jennings.

West Indies: Shivnarine Chanderpaul (captain), Chris Gayle, Xavier Marshall, Runako Morton, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Brian Lara, Dwayne Smith, Dwayne Bravo, Courtney Browne, Corey Collymore, Daren Powell, Fidel Edwards, Ian Bradshaw.