Rain wreaked havoc on the third one-dayer between India and the West Indies at the Beausejour Stadium in St Lucia on Friday, after Mahendra Singh Dhoni had won the toss and put the hosts in to bat.

At the time of going to print, the West Indies were well-placed at 115 for two in 17 overs in a match reduced to 27 overs-a-side after three separate interruptions in play. Both Runako Morton and Chris Gayle were back in the hut, with Ramnaresh Sarwan (50*) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (10*) at the crease.

The match was delayed by two hours after the skies opened up just before the scheduled 9.30 am start. It was two hours before the covers finally came off, as Chris Gayle and Runako Morton got things going from where they had left off in the second one-dayer.

Gayle smashed Ishant Sharma, back in the XI in place of Praveen Kumar, for four boundaries in his first two overs as the West Indies looked to get off to a flier in the match that was, at that point, reduced to 41 overs-a-side.

But, after just 3.3 overs had been bowled, a brief downpour forced the players off again. Gayle was dismissed for a 14-ball 27 right after restart, the match this time reduced to 39-overs-a-side.

Morton was struggling to put bat to ball in extremely windy conditions, but Ramnaresh Sarwan looked right at home as he picked off the Indian seamers.

Just as the West Indies, and the match itself, started to get some kind of momentum though, rain came into play again, and two further interruptions — the second of those lasting for more than an hour — reduced the match to a 27-over affair.

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