It’s a long way from the Caribbean to Australia, but the West Indies players have settled in very well after their voyage from home. Head Coach Ottis Gibson believes his players will adjust to the conditions as they prepare for the upcoming series, which will include five One-Day Internationals and a one-off T20 International.

“We’re hoping we can hit the ground running. We’ve just come out of a tournament (Caribbean T20) at home so everyone has been playing cricket and the guys have shown good form. We believe we’ve got a good mix of some young players and some very experienced players,” said Gibson, who took over the job in March, 2010.

England registered a morale boosting 7-wicket win in the final ODI of the series at Dharamsala to reduce the deficit to 2-3. Some excellent bowling by England's new ball bowlers, Steve Finn and Tim Bresnan, set the visitors on their way by reducing India to 49-4, before a battling half-century from Suresh Raina, his 7th in 11 innings, helped India post a below par 226 runs for England to chase. Ian Bell led the way for England with the bat, making an unbeaten 113 to lead his side to a comfortable win with India's bowlers never really threatening to turn around the contest.

England won a good toss and opted to field in what was the first early start of the series. The decision proved to be a masterstroke for England as they struck thrice in the first 7 overs to reduce India to 24-3.

Ryan McLaren hit the final ball of the third One-Day International for an outrageous six to secure an astonishing one-wicket victory for South Africa against New Zealand and avoid an unprecedented series whitewash on home soil at Senwes Park on Friday.

The Proteas threatened to repeat the meltdown from a winning position which cost them victory in the second match in Kimberley on Tuesday when they crashed from 174-3 to 251-8 in reply to the Black Caps competitive total of 260-9 but McLaren spared the batsmen’s blushes by playing an outrageous ‘ramp’ shot against James Franklin which flew over the fine leg boundary with three runs required for victory.

The Cricket Australia (CA) National Selection Panel (NSP) has today announced a 13-player squad for the first two Commonwealth Bank Series matches against the West Indies on 1 February and 3 February at the WACA in Perth.

Commenting on the squad, National Selector John Inverarity said: “The NSP was delighted with the ODI team’s impressive win against Sri Lanka in Hobart on Wednesday, in particular with Phillip Hughes’ well-crafted innings and the bowling of Xavier Doherty and Moises Henriques.