Pressure mounts on West Indies

Things are going from bad to worse for West Indies: fresh from their 5-0 routing by South Africa, they fell immediately behind in their three-match series against Pakistan when their batting collapsed in the first one-dayer on Wednesday.

The two sides head to St Lucia for the second match on Saturday, but it will take a strong fightback if the hosts are to prevent Pakistan taking an unassailable 2-0 lead. The tourists are now 4/9 (1.44) to win on Saturday, while West Indies are 13/8 (2.62). But, with Brian Lara rested until the Test series, it's hard to see how West Indies will regroup. Their defeat in St Vincent - just their second in 16 matches there - was their seventh one-day loss in a row. By contrast, Pakistan have been looking increasingly like a decent one-day outfit, having won five in succession themselves.

But West Indies will be heartened by their record at the Beausejour Stadium in St Lucia; they've won four of five one-dayers at a ground purpose-built for the World Cup. However, as St Vincent showed, records mean little at the moment. The absence of Lara - who, admittedly, barely contributed in the recent whitewash - has left their batting line-up short of experience and class. Their captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who averages 50.00 in his past 10 one-day innings, and Ramnaresh Sarwan (35.33) will need to step up.

The St Lucia pitch has proved a belter for batsmen in the five one-dayers held there: no team has been dismissed for less than 200, and four matches have been won by the chasing side, so a batsman could be a good bet for the Man of the Match award. Pakistan's captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, who averages 56.20 in his past 20 one-day matches, looks good value at 8/1 (9.00). West Indies allrounder Chris Gayle is 8/1 (9.00) while Chanderpaul and the classy Yousuf Youhana, with an average of 41.54, are all contenders at 10/1 (11.0).

The individual player markets make interesting reading, too, in particular Shahid Afridi's overall performance in the match. Bet365 award 20 points per wicket taken, 1 per run scored and 10 per catch, and they offer 5/6 (1.83) that Afridi will make 53 or more. It's the same price that his tally will be less than 53. The destructive Afridi has scored four hundreds and 25 fifties in one-dayers but he averages just 24.42. However, if you'd gone higher than 53 in each of his past 10 matches, you'd have won six times, including each of the past three.

The same market and prices apply to Gayle but, although Gayle is a superior batsman to Afridi, it's worth bearing in mind that if you'd gone 53 or higher in each of his past 10 matches, he would only have been a winner for you twice.