India vs West Indies - India Pray for Pak Win Over Aussies

Johannesburg: Their survival hinging on a favourable result elsewhere, India take on West Indies in a must-win match here on Wednesday, hoping that arch-rivals Pakistan do them a favour by beating Australia in their final group A engagament of the Champions Trophy.

India approach Wednesday's game against the West Indies with a prayer on the lips that Pakistan would somehow prevail over Australia by a big margin in the day's first game in Centurion.

If it happens, India would need to up their net run-rate dramatically, besides winning the match, to stand a chance of making the last-four stage.

India presently have a net run-rate of -1.08 whereas Australia have a massive advantage of +1.00 in their favour.

Australia won their opening game against the West Indies by 50 runs and India lost theirs by 54 runs. So if India are to go past Australia's net run-rate, they ought to cover the difference of 104 runs between the two teams.

India's chance for semis:

• For instance, if Australia lose their game by 25 runs, India need to win theirs against the West Indies by 80 runs to prevail and go through to the semi-finals. However, if Australia bat first and score 250 runs, India need to get their runs inside 40 overs for them to go through.
• Clearly such complications don't bode good things for India. West Indies, despite missing most of their key players due to the ongoing contracts dispute, are no pushovers.

In WI first game against Pakistan, they had the latter on ropes after Younus Khan's team had set itself up for a small chase. Pakistan, at one stage were reeling at 76 for 5, chasing 134 to win, when Umar Akmal bailed them out with his sensible batting.

In their second game, West Indies first had Australia on the backfoot and later in the evening, they batted beyond their skins to give the world champions a true scare.

India's bowling worries would also ease at the Wanderers where the pitch has consistently afforded bounce even though the swing factor isn't on. They quickly need to adapt themselves.

India's bowling could go unchanged despite the fact that having a five-strong attack did little to stop the Aussie batting from notching up 234 runs in 42 over.

Batting hasn't done too badly and the experienced line-up, despite missing the likes of Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag, shouldn't find it tough to negotiate what is essentially a second-string attack.

Teams

India: Ishant Sharma too seems very low on confidence and was hammered by Australian batsmen last night. It would not come as a surprise if he is rested though the bounce at the Wanderers pitch might as well give the lanky pacer a shot in the arm.

Squad (likely): MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra/Abhishek Nayar, Ashish Nehra, Suresh Raina, Ishant Sharma.

West Indies: Their fast bowling of Windies is more than competent which has settled itself nicely at the Wanderers. Even with their fighting spirit, West Indies are a rag-tag side and it would be interesting to see how they keep themselves motivated in an inconsequential game for them as they are already out of semifinal contention after their losses to Australia and Pakistan.

Squad (likely): Floyd Reifer (capt), Darren Sammy, David Bernard, Tino Best, Travis Dowlin, Andre Fletcher, Kevin McClean, Nikita Miller, Devon Smith, Gavin Tonge, Chadwick Walton (wk).

Pitch and conditions
India will be playing at the Wanderers for the first time in this competition, and there will definitely be extra bounce on offer. West Indies have the advantage of having played both their matches there.

Stats and trivia

• The Wanderers has been a tough ground to chase on during this competition: Pakistan and England sweated chasing 134 and 213 respectively, West Indies and Sri Lanka failed chasing bigger totals.
• In 59 ODI innings Suresh Raina has scored two centuries, against Bangladesh and Hong Kong. It has to do in part with fluctuating batting order, because he has maintained a decent average of 35-plus.
• West Indies have played India twice in the Champions Trophy, and won on both occasions: the semi-final in Dhaka in 1998, and a league match in Ahmedabad in 2006. In World Cups the head-to-head is three wins each.

Match fact
Wednesday September 30, 2009 (day/night)
Start time: 14:30 local, 12:30 GMT, 18:00 IST, 07:30 WI

Head 2 Head