The 3rd of May will see the England team take on West Indies in the second match of the day at the providence Stadium in Guyana. England had a classic run in the warm-up games as they looked to get their straps against the Bangladeshis, and then went on to overcome the South African side in the second game.

West Indies did not have too much going in the warm-up match as they were beaten by New Zealand in the only match they played in.

However, the good news for the West Indian side is that they are hosts and will look to take a lot of advantage out of it. Under the normal circumstances, the hosts so not have too much advantage, but the fact is that the pitches are rather slow, and for any other side they will need some time to adjust to them. Also, West Indies had played in a series against Zimbabwe back home, on those very slowish pitches and were put to test against the rather slow Zimbabwean bowling, which means that it does look like the team will be prepared for the challenges ahead.

The biggest advantage for the West Indies is that they possess the batsmen to overcome the issue. For one, they have strong hitters of the ball like Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard to smash the ball to all parts of the ground, and to overcome any early loss of wickets, they also have a Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan to bat through the innings. What the hosts need though is for their two spinners, Nikita Miller and Sulieman Benn to come good so that, they can use the home advantage to their liking against a side that barely likes the ball spinning and coming slowly off the track.

England did have a good round or two of the warm-up matches, and that would have meant that they will go into the tournament with a lot of confidence. However, they will know that winning the warm up matches and these league games are two, totally different ball-games altogether. They will also understand that the side will need to bowl much better than they do and rely a lot on spin.

The good news is that they have Graeme Swann to do that, as they have Kevin Pietersen, who can double up as a bowler as well. If Michael Yardy plays, they will possess a battery of bowlers who can do what is required on these pitches.

West Indies go into the game as marginal favourites according to me.

Tag :- England   Graeme Swann   Kevin Pietersen   Kieron Pollard   Nikita Miller   West Indies