Weary after months of non-stop cricket, India were again a pale shadow of themselves in the second one-dayer, in which only skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni shone for the visiting team. After their failure in the World T20 championship in England last month, the Indians are naturally keen to end this never-ending season on a high after making a glorious start with victories against Australia, England and in the away series in New Zealand.

In the absence of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, the top-order batting has looked weak despite some flashes of individual brilliance, and the form of Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma continues to be a matter of concern for Dhoni going into the third match, especially with the hosts again expected to exploit their apparent weakness against short-pitch bowling on lively tracks.

“We should have paid a little more respect to the bowlers (in the last match),” Dhoni said. “The wicket was a bit difficult, it was swinging around a bit. We didn’t judge the wicket well and just went around playing our strokes which really brought our downfall. Once you lose too many wickets then the only thing that you are doing is catching up.”

West Indies skipper Chris Gayle said his team were looking to go from strength to strength after the Kingston win. “It was nice to square the series. There were some good performances from the guys. (Ravi) Rampaul and (Jerome) Taylor set the game for us,” he said. “There was moisture in the wicket and Taylor and Ravi utilised it well, and the catching was also good, so we just need to keep working on our game.”