There was no real fight from the start of the innings. The openers, who did so well in the 25-over a side affair yesterday both failed. Wavell Hinds (2) slashed at a full delivery from Ashish Nehra straight to Sehwag at slip. Chris Gayle (3) was undone by the ball of the day – a superb inswinging yorker at good pace from Zaheer Khan that knocked the base of the off stump.

The West Indies needed a good start from its openers if they were to chase this big total. That was not to be and things went predictably wrong.

Ramnaresh Sarwan, struggling to get the tidy bowling away for ones and twos, played one glorious cover drive that landed in the stands before trying to repeat the feat. Giving himself room, Sarwan (32, 44 balls, 1 four, 1 six) was unable to get his bat down in time and Harbhajan Singh struck, clipping the leg stump.

All hopes then rested on Brian Lara. The Prince looked shaky at his home ground, scratching around a fair bit before beginning to sweep the spinners with some fluency. A straight drive back past the bowler’s head showed that Lara was not completely out of touch. And yet it was all not quite there. The last knock for Lara this series ended on 36 when he deposited a Sachin Tendulkar full toss down Dinesh Mongia’s throat at midwicket.

Carl Hooper, another man who gave fans some reason to stay on at the Queen’s Park Oval and wait for a miracle, lasted just 2 balls, mis-hitting Ajit Agarkar straight up into the air for Sehwag to catch.

Ridley Jacobs and Shivnarine Chanderpaul were at the crease, attempting to score 149 in 19 overs.

At the halfway mark, Ganguly was coasting along. Soon after, he reached his half-century, marked his guard once more and set his stalls out for a long innings. It wasn’t to be. Unable to resist temptation Ganguly attempted to pull a short delivery from Dillon. The pull is a shot that has not served the Indian captain well and today was no exception. Playing the ball uppishly, Ganguly (56 runs, 80balls, 5 fours) only managed to find Ramnaresh Sarwan at midwicket.

Rahul Dravid then came out to the middle at number five and looked to keep the scoreboard ticking over with quick singles. Content to milk the bowling, Dravid (20) played a half hearted flick off Hooper to be caught at midwicket.

The Indian innings got a bit shaky at this stage. Yuvraj Singh spanked one ball through midwicket and helped himself to a couple of easy singles before being cleaned up by a faster ball from Chris Gayle. Late on the stroke, Yuvraj Singh (10) could only look on in dismay as the off stump was pegged back.

Tendulkar, a bit disappointed at the lack of support from the other end, played well within himself. Perhaps the sore shoulder was hampering him as well, but the little master from Mumbai was clearly not at his best. The flashy drives were missing, the aggressive pulls nowhere to be seen. However, the quick running between the wickets and deft touches were very much in evidence. Until one such dab off Dillon resulted in the ball trickling back onto the stumps.

Tendulkar top scored with 65 (70 balls, 3 fours, 1 six).

Mohammad Kaif worked the ball around for 17 before attempting an ungainly reverse sweep against Gayle and was clean bowled.

Ajit Agarkar (3) contributed his customary single digit score before holing out and Zaheer Khan (4) became Dillon’s fifth victim when he found Pedro Collins at long on.

When Gayle knocked over Ashish Nehra’s off stump with the last ball of the 50th over, he returned the excellent figures of 3/27. Dillon, with 5/52 however, was the real star of the West Indian bowlers.

It certainly helped that Ganguly won the toss, again, and elected to bat first on a wicket that looked full of runs. In the initial stages, the ball did swing a bit, but nowhere near enough to cause concern.

Virender Sehwag, who has got out to airy shots in the first two matches, seemed to be much more circumspect. Instead of going after everything from the word go, Sehwag attempted to get his eye in. Getting his front foot well forward, Sehwag played some convincing drives straight back down the wicket.

And yet, once again Sehwag fell to a similar stroke as the last game. After making 32 (32 balls, 6 fours) Sehwag flicked Merv Dillon straight to Chris Gayle at wide mid on.

Dinesh Mongia, coming in at one drop played in his usual reassured style. Taking his time to get a good idea about the conditions, Mongia played some pretty strokes in his 28 but he too could not convert his start.

Hitting one booming stroke down the wicket, Mongia was caught on the long off fence by Cuffy, who could not control himself and back peddled over the ropes. Just balls later however, Mongia (28, 37 balls, 2 fours, 1 six) patted a slower ball from Corey Collymore straight to Gayle in the midwicket region.

In all this, a supremely confident Ganguly showed why he is so dangerous in the shorter version of the game. Timing the ball ever so well through the off side, Ganguly kept the scoreboard ticking over. Whenever he was tied down by a spell of tight bowling, Ganguly broke the shackles by coming down the wicket and hitting cleanly over the top.

Sachin Tendulkar, coming in at number four started quietly and worked his way to 11 not out at the 25 over mark. Ganguly was going strong on 48 (67 balls, 4 fours) at the same stage.

Sourav Ganguly made it four in a row at the toss, calling correctly. And yes, with the wicket hardly worn, India elected to bat first.

There’s good news for India fans. Sachin Tendulkar, who missed the previous game with a sore shoulder has recovered and is back in the side. On this account, VVS Laxman misses out.

India has made another change to their team, bringing back left-arm seam bowler Ashish Nehra in place of Tinu Yohannan. Nehra has the ability to move the ball in the air and this, coupled with Yohannan’s disappointing showing in his second ODI prompted the Indian think tank to make the change.

The buoyant West Indian team made no changes to the team that so convincingly won the rain shortened 25 over a side game yesterday.

India team: *SC Ganguly, V Sehwag, D Mongia, SR Tendulkar, +R Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, M Kaif, AB Agarkar, Z Khan, A Nehra, Harbhajan Singh.