'We will use short balls'

Indian batsmen may have come away with reasonable success against South Africa’s tactics of using the short ball, but West Indies believe it’s still the best weapon for their bowlers for the time being.  

“I think we’ll,” said West Indies’ coach Ottis Gibson when asked if his bowlers would use bouncers. “Look, the last time we used short pitch bowling it was Joel Garner, Colin Croft, Michael Holding and people like that. We don't have those guys, those tall guys anymore. So as we saw against Pakistan, we pitched it up, we swung it a little bit and we put it in the right areas, and I suppose that will be the strategy going forward. 

With West Indies set to play India on the same pitch where they beat Pakistan three days ago, Gibson hoped it would behave in the same way.

“The groundsman said it won't change much. He's put a little bit more preparation into it and stuff like that. In an ideal world, you would want to play on a fresh pitch, but the groundsman has said he doesn’t expect the pitch to behave any different. He said he thinks it'll probably behave better than it did in the Pakistan game, so hopefully it will,” he remarked.

The Oval has been lucky ground for the West Indies in the Champions Trophy but the wins have come in some close finishes. They won the 2004 title here beating England in tense chase, as they overcame Pakistan the other day.

“We're very comfortable here. Our guys enjoy coming here and the history and everything else. We play some really good cricket here,” he offered.