West Indies v Australia - 3rd ODI

FIRST things first. Enough excuses for the West Indies. We were sure they were getting better from what we saw of them first-hand in the Caribbean but maybe it was just another false dawn for West Indian cricket. They have been dead-set awful so far in the one-day series and we almost feel a tinge of embarrassment that we tipped this series to be a tight contest. On the evidence so far this series these blokes would not be competitive against Nepal in one-day cricket at the moment.

However the West Indies are a complete enigma and you just never know what to expect from them. Wouldn't completely surprise us if this mob went from one of their worst performances to one of their best and upset the Aussies in the third one-dayer. But that's just a gut feel and there's no way Mr Cricket is going to end up with egg on his face by tipping them until he's seen something much, much, much better from them.

It is almost certain the third one-dayer will be played on another low and slow Grenada pitch - one like the other day which required extreme patience and care from batsmen.
Patience and care aren't normally words associated with West Indian batting so this mob would want to put their heads down before normally unflappable coach John Dyson loses his cool entirely.

Australia probably won't make any changes to their team - unless Andy Symonds is fit - while who would know what sort of axe could be wielded at the West Indian selection table. It is possible Ramnaresh Sarwan could return from injury to bolster their batting but apart from that we will have to wait until the toss to watch Windies team changes.

We haven't read this series too well so far but one thing we know for sure is that Chris Gayle isn't the player he once was. Perhaps it is the groin injury he has been carrying - or the pressure of captaining the side - but Gayle hasn't been able to fire a shot in either the Test series or the one-day series against the Aussies.

Gayle's opening partner Xavier Marshall has a terrible one-day record - averaging just 8.6 from his 12 matches - but we saw enough of him in the third Test in Barbados to know he has plenty of talent. The debonair youngster has the right swashbuckling attitude and he is 'overs' in run markets in this game due to his first-ball duck in the most recent game.

But anyone can get out to a decent first-baller and we are ready to forgive him for that. We prefer to remember his destructive 85 in the fourth innings of the third Test against the Aussies - where he showed he has the shotmaking arsenal to score some serious runs.

With Gayle struggling, we'd like to be on the up-and-coming Marshall to score more runs than his skipper, at $2.10 in Lasseters market. We will make that a half unit play.

© 2008 Punting Ace.com

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