Windies plan surprises for remaining ODIs

Captain Carl Hooper is planning a few surprises as the West Indies search for back-to-back wins to clinch the one-day series against India at the Queen's Park Oval this weekend.

India won the third of five matches at Kensington Oval in Barbados by seven wickets on Wednesday to take a 1-0 lead after the first two games were both washed out in Kingston, Jamaica.

"We have made a few changes in the side and in the batting order, but that is a surprise for the Indians," Hooper said after a team practice on Friday.

"I'm not at liberty to discuss it right now, we want to shock them on the ground tomorrow."

West Indies were bowled out for just 186 after being put in to bat in Barbados and Hooper says he would like to see the in-form Shivnarine Chanderpaul batting higher up the order.

Chanderpaul scored 562 runs at an astonishing average of 140.5 against India in the recent Test series won 2-1 by West Indies, but managed only five batting at number six in Wednesday's one-dayer.

There is now speculation that the Guyana player could even open the batting in the fourth one-dayer on Saturday.

"I'm very happy with whatever changes we have made. Our focus is to get the players who are in good nick to the crease as quickly as possible," said Hooper, who had scored an unbeaten 76 from 75 balls in Barbados before running out of partners.

The home side have decided to recall left-arm paceman Pedro Collins, who missed the last match because of a bout of flu.

"He (Pedro) has been one of the better one-day bowlers for us in recent games and his return should help the team do well," Hooper said.

TENDULKAR WORRY

India have a slight worry going into Saturday's game, with leading batsman Sachin Tendulkar suffering from a minor injury in his shoulder and upper forearm.

Coach John Wright and captain Saurav Ganguly both said the 29-year-old should be fit to play but would call upon Vangipurappu Laxman if the Bombay batsman is declared unfit on the morning of the match.

"He should be okay," Ganguly told Reuters. "I'm confident he will play."

The Indians, who were led by a spirited 74 from Dinesh Mongia in Barbados, have otherwise decided to play the same 11.

It was Mongia's second consecutive man-of-the-match award in one-dayers -- following his 159 not out at Guwahati in March -- and Ganguly said he looked forward to more from the 25-year-old left-hander.

Ganguly also said India were aiming to close out the series on Saturday.

"Back-to-back matches can be very tough and we don't want to leave the job until Sunday. We must win the first of the upcoming games and clinch the series 2-0."

Teams:
India - Sourav Ganguly (captain), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Dinesh Mongia, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammad Kaif, Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Tinu Yohannan.

West Indies (from) - Carl Hooper (captain), Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Brian Lara, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ryan Hinds, Ridley Jacobs, Mervyn Dillon, Pedro Collins, Cameron Cuffy, Gareth Breese, Corey Collymore.

Mail Cricket Editor