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A wretched venue for India
Wisden CricInfo staff - May 28, 2002
There have been 14 one-day internationals in Bridgetown, Barbados. West Indies have won eight and lost six, four of those defeats coming in the last six matches. India have been beaten on both occasions they haveplayed here.
Teams winning the toss have opted to field eight times, and have won exactly half those matches. Overall, teams batting first have won eight out of 14 one-dayers.
The average runs-per-over for the team batting first here is 4.98, which translates to a total of 249 in 50 overs. For the team chasing, the average run-rate is 4.56.
England made the highest one-day total here, 293 for 5 in 1997-98, thanks mainly to the highest individual score on this ground, Nick Knight's 122. The highest score in West Indies-India matches is Des Haynes's unbeaten 117 in 1988-89. Not entirely surprising, this: Haynes has more one-day runs (345) and hundreds (2) here than anyone else.
Both seamers and spinners have had only limited success at the Kensington Oval – the seamers average 36.27 with an economy-rate of 4.73; spinners have picked wickets at 39.72, conceding 4.66 runs an over.
No five-fors have been taken in one-dayers here, and only once has a bowler taken four in a match: Jacques Kallis sneaked in with 4 for 22 for South Africa last year. The best figures in West Indies-India games belong to... Viv Richards, who took 3 for 47 in 1988-89 after coming on first-change ahead of Courtney Walsh. Richards was captain that day, but the current incumbent Carl Hooper might be less inclined to turn to his own gentle offspinners: his bowling average in ODIs here is 308.
India's last match here was a disaster. Put in to bat, they managed a mere 199 runs, which the West Indian openers Stuart Williams and Shivnarine Chanderpaul overhauled with 32 balls to spare. It was a regular day's work at the office for Chanderpaul against India – he ended up unbeaten on 109, winning the Man-of-the-Match award.
S Rajesh is sub editor, and Rob Smyth is on the staff of Wisden.com.
© Wisden CricInfo Ltd
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