West Indies bowler Ian Bradshaw (left) celebrates with teammates during their Tri-Series victory over Australia in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. - reuters

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters):

ORGANISERS OF the Tri-Series will be holding their breath this morning (Ja time) when India take on the West Indies, knowing that only a victory will keep the Asian side in with a chance of reaching Sunday's final.

The warm-up tournament for next month's Champions Trophy is heavily backed by India's cricket governing body BCCI and ticket sales have only been brisk on days when the Indian team is in action.

The only time the 3,500 capacity Kinrara Oval has been near capacity was on Saturday, when India's match against Australia was abandoned because of rain.

Having lost to West Indies in their first match, India must win their last two matches, including a Friday clash with Australia, to reach the final.

Little interest

Malaysia has a large ethnic Indian population, but most of them have little interest in cricket.

The majority of the fans who have turned up to watch them are school children or expatriate Indians.

On the field, India are facing an uphill battle, though they could be forgiven for believing they have been hard done by.

After posting a challenging 309 against West Indies, they lost the rain-shortened match on the Duckworth-Lewis method. And despite a batting collapse against Australia, the points were eventually shared after rain forced the match to be abandoned.

Indian coach Greg Chappell said he was not looking beyond the West Indies match.

"We have to win the first one, then think about winning two in a row," Chappell said. "We haven't really had a whole game to see where we are at."

The West Indies can relax knowing that they are already in the final after beating Australia by three wickets on Monday.

Skipper Brian Lara said he was hoping to use the match to solidify their brittle middle-order, which collapsed against Australia last week and nearly repeated the feat on Monday.

"We came here to make the final and it would have been a shame if we had to stop (after the India game)," Lara said.

"Certainly, we have one game to try and address the situation (in the middle order) but I have a lot of faith in my team."