India fancied, but Windies can upset

Elmo Rodrigopulle reporting from England

With the ICC Champions Trophy gathering momentum, another cracker ofmatch between India and West Indies in Group 'B' will be fought out at the Kennington Oval in a day game, today. Both India and West Indies coasted to victory over South Africa and Pakistan. India had an easy go against South Africa and West Indies had to struggle to get the better of Pakistan.

The winners of this game will make certain of a semi-final clash and the loser will be on the brink of elimination. With that being the situation, the ingredients are there for another sizzler.

Little to choose

There's little to choose between both sides. India led cleverly by the experienced Mahendra Singh Dhoni, are a competent all round side, having with them some requisite stroke players and an attacking set of bowlers.

West Indies have a raw captain in Dwayne Bravo. But with his all round ability can inspire his team and get the best out of them. In the game against Pakistan he bowled accurately and played a gallant knock when his team was struggling.The Indians are slightly favoured in this game. Their frontline batsmen are in good nick led by openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan who laid the foundation for a big score.

Minor collapse

They suffered a minor collapse in the middle order, but as always there was Dhoni to resurrect the innings. The In dins would have learnt and a strong batting effort is expected from them. Ishant Sharma will spearhead the attack. He is bowling in great form and it is their spinners of Ravindra Jadeja and Suresh Raina who have put the brakes on the opposing batsmen.

Though the West Indies have big names and big hitters in the game they can crumble as they showed when under pressure. The Pakistani bowlers put them under pressure and they were wriggling.

Two bowlers to watch

The Windies have only two bowlers the Indian batsmen will have to watch against. That is 'black lightning' Kemar Roach and spin king Sunil Narine. It was they who strangled the Pakistani batting.

Fast man Roach is bowling quite fast and in addition is able to get the ball to climb disconcertingly off a good line and length and the batsmen are in danger of being hit. Of spinner Narine varies his deliveries well and batsmen struggled to read which way the spin is going.

He is capable of turning the ball on any wicket and it should no different on the Oval strip. If the Oval wicket remains true a good game of cricket is on the cards and both teams will not lack for want of spectator support. Kennington Oval, Monday.