Numbers point to India

West Indies hold a 46-30 advantage in all ODIs, but one look at the current form and you'd have to put your money on India to triumph in the five-match series which starts on Thursday. India have won nine of the last 15 matches between the two sides, including a 2-1 series win the last time they toured the West Indies. And when you look at the last 25 games for each team, the difference is even more stark - 18 wins and seven losses for India, and just eight wins and 16 defeats for West Indies.

The biggest story in India's ODI revival since Greg Chappell and Rahul Dravid took over has been the team's newfound ability to chase down targets. They have done that 16 times in a row, 14 of them in their last 25 matches. West Indies, on the other hand, have lost 10 out of their last 13 run-chases, while two of their three wins were achieved against a substandard Zimbabwe team.

The highlight of the Indian run-chases of late has been the manner in which the middle order has stood up and delivered every time it has been asked to. When batting second, the average partnership for each of the third, fourth and fifth wickets have been more than 100, while the corresponding wickets for West Indies put together less than 50.

The players primarily responsible for those staggering partnerships stats have been Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Rahul Dravid and Suresh Raina - all of them have averaged more than 45 over the last 25 games, and have often been at the crease when the winning runs have been scored. Among the bowlers, the standout performer has undoubtedly been Irfan Pathan, with 39 wickets from just 22 games at an average of less than 22.

The West Indians suffer in comparison. In their last 25 matches, only Runako Morton averages more than 45, while Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan, their next-best batsmen during this period, average marginally below 40. The bowling has been led by Ian Bradshaw, whose 26 wickets have come at 27 apiece at a reasonable economy rate of 4.66.

What might encourage the West Indians, though, is the fact that most of the Indian players have underperformed against them: among the batsmen, only Dravid averages more against them than his career numbers; Sehwag, Yuvraj and Mohammad Kaif all have poorer stats, with the difference being maximum for Sehwag.

The West Indian batsmen, on the other hand, have pretty good records against India: Sarwan averages 23 more than his career average, while the numbers look pretty impressive for Chris Gayle too, but Chanderpaul hasn't replicated his Test match success against India in the one-dayers, while Brian Lara averages just 30 from 31 ODIs against them, 11 lesser than his career average of 41.