Port of Spain: India had to fight before taking a 1-0 lead over the West Indies in the five-match ODI series but Suresh Raina would want his team to assert their supremacy over the hosts in the second match here at the Queen's Park Oval on Wednesday. Gaps created by the absence of seasoned pros like Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, MS Dhoni and Zaheer Khan are not easy to plug but the second-string team has shown the zeal one associates with the world champions. Cleary missing Chris Gayle, West Indies can do without dwelling on the opener's loss and focus on getting the best out of the resources at hand in their second confrontation. What must have hurt the hosts in the four-wicket loss on Monday was the inability to press home the advantage when they had the chance to do it. Had one out of the two half-centurions - Ramnaresh Sarwan (56) and Marlon Samuels (55) - stayed till the end, West Indies would have scored the 50-odd runs that they eventually fell short of. Then their bowlers fought well defending an average score of 215 but failed to keep the Indians in check even after reducing them to 104/4. Devendra Bishoo and Anthony Martin impressed on the sluggish surface, which was one of the positives for the hosts other than the batting of Sarwan and Samuels. Probably, Kieron Pollard lower down the order was what they missed in the first match. But facing quality Indian spin remains the West Indies' Achilles heel and needs to be addressed sooner rather than later as coming back will be difficult should they go 2-0 down on Wednesday. They have to come up with better answer than block and run, which only resulted in 29.2 overs as dot balls in the first ODI. The visitors look more settled in their bowling than batting, thanks to the absence of all the stalwarts. And it's hard to remember when last did Indian bowling looked better than their batting. Lack of quality openers is their biggest headache. While Parthiv Patel has failed so far, Shikhar Dhawan had one miss (in the Twenty20) and one hit when he scored 51 runs on Monday. However, the middle order, especially Rohit Sharma, has so far made up for the opening blues with some level-headed approach, which must be heartening to watch for MS Dhoni, who is resting back home. Rohit, along with Raina, Virat Kohli and S Badrinath, presents a quality challenge for the inexperienced West Indian attack. In fact, it's the success or failure of India's middle order that may decide West Indies' fortunes in the first leg of the tour. Making early inroads into India's batting lineup will give the hosts best chance to restrict the visitors. Harbhajan Singh and Co. has so far found the slow, turning tracks to their liking. But it would be foolish to ignore the discipline shown by Munaf Patel and Praveen Kumar, who provided early wickets on Monday that made the spinners more effective. But it has to be admitted that Gayle's absence makes a huge difference to the confidence of any bowler. On the face of it, India clearly have an edge going into the second ODI but the West Indies can never be taken lightly, especially at home. Squads: West Indies: Darren Sammy (c), Lendl Simmons, Kirk Edwards, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Carlton Baugh (wk), Andre Russell, Anthony Martin, Devendra Bishoo, Ravi Rampaul. India: Shikhar Dhawan, Parthiv Patel, Virat Kohli, Subramaniam Badrinath, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin, Munaf Patel, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma.
