India ahead in trial by spin

West Indies have been struggling to compete against the top teams for a while now, and their record when playing at the home of their opponents is quite poor - since 2000, their overall away record is 35 wins and 53 defeats. However, India is the one country where they've competed well, with six wins and as many defeats against India in India since 2000. In fact, India have an overall head-to-head advantage against West Indies since 2000, but that's mainly because of their win-loss record in neutral venues - 6-2.

In World Cup games too there's been nothing to choose between the two teams: the two teams have shared the six matches equally, and so egalitarian have they been that neither team has won two in a row. West Indies won the first one in 1979, India won two out of three in 1983, while West Indies won in 1992 and lost in 1996. If that trend continues, West Indies can look forward to upsetting the form book on Sunday.

The West Indian batsmen have generally enjoyed the pitches and the conditions in India, though the track in Chennai might not be as favourable to run-scoring as some of the other venues in the country. Chris Gayle averages almost 56 in ODIs in India, with six of his 19 ODI centuries coming in this country. Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan both average more than 40 too, though neither has got going in the World Cup so far: in seven innings between them, the highest either batsman has scored is 49. In fact, batting has been a worry for West Indies in the tournament, with Darren Bravo, Chanderpaul and Sarwan all averaging less than 30.

The Indian batsmen have done reasonably well at home against West Indies since 2000, but the one player who has struggled is Yuvraj Singh: in eight innings he has managed only 209 runs at an average of 26.12.

If the last two matches at the MA Chidambaram Stadium are any indication, spinners will have plenty to do on Sunday, and the batting team which handles the spin better could be the winner. On that count, India seem to be better equipped. West Indies have lost 19 out of 39 wickets to spin, and their average and run-rate against spin are much poorer than the corresponding numbers against pace. The Indians have a much higher average against spin, while there's almost no difference between their run-rates against pace and spin.

The overall pace and spin numbers for Chennai in this World Cup suggest that fast bowlers have done better than spinners, but that's largely because of the first game at the venue, when Kenya crumbled against New Zealand's fast bowlers. Excluding that match, there's little to choose between the stats for the two, with the spinners faring slightly better in terms of average and run-rate.