Windies fancied in one-dayers

BRIDGETOWN: Having spent the last few weeks as cricket underdogs against Australia, West Indies now find themselves in the position of firm favourites.

Although overall they lost the one-day series against the world champions, they are on a three-match winning streak and hungry for more. “If we don’t drop our standards, we’re going to get more success against teams of lesser ability than Australia,” said captain Brian Lara. “We’ve proved that we can be competitive, but we have to maintain it.” The home side have a strong batting line-up, with opener Wavell Hinds looking to add to his back-to-back centuries against Australia in Grenada, but their bowling has been less impressive. They have supplemented their attack by calling up paceman Daren Powell, but will be wary of Sri Lanka’s array of stroke-players. Marvan Atapattu’s team were all at sea on seamer-friendly wickets at Dambulla, despite having home advantage in a recent triangular series against New Zealand and Pakistan. They failed to make the final and have only had one match to acclimatise since arriving in the Caribbean, a convincing 115-run win over a Shell Academy XI.

But Atapattu made 99 in that match, and the likes of Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara are overdue for a return to form. If they can post competitive totals, they can then look to spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and left-arm swing bowler Chaminda Vaas, the leading wicket-taker at the World Cup, to bowl them to victory. “We are rebuilding our squad, but we’ll play positive cricket,” promised Atapattu. Sri Lanka have won five of the last six one-day meetings between the teams, the most recent in Cape Town during the World Cup. On that occasion, they came out on top by six runs despite Ramnaresh Sarwan bravely returning to the crease for West Indies despite being concussed by a Dilhara Fernando bouncer. Fernando is not on the tour because of back problems, but his namesake Dinusha is in contention to make his debut.

West Indies (from): Brian Lara (capt), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Omari Banks, David Bernard Jr, Corey Collymore, Mervyn Dillon, Vasbert Drakes, Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Ryan Hurley, Ridley Jacobs, Daren Powell, Ricardo Powell, Marlon Samuels, Devon Smith.
Sri Lanka (from): Marvan Atapattu (capt), Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Kaushalya Lokuarachchi, Kumar Dharmasena, Prabath Nissanka, Upul Chandana, Darshana Gamage, Dinusha Fernando, Naveed Nawaz.