Form key for Karthik

Dinesh Karthik rescued India from a perilous position in the second one-day international

Dinesh Karthik believes consistent performances in recent months played a major role in his guiding India to a 20-run victory over West Indies.

The understudy wicket-keeper was named man of the match after his measured 63 helped rescue India in the second one-day international at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack and take an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the four-match series.

The home team were struggling on 90 for seven before Karthik's heroics bolstered their total to a competitive 189 - a score they eventually managed to defend.

“I have been carrying my form from South Africa,” Karthik said of his performance. ”The last three innings of mine have all been good.

“I just want to be more consistent and keep going and finish off games. That’s what the team requires me to do.”

The 21-year-old is one of two wicket-keeper/batsmen in the team alongside the more prominent Mahendra Singh Dhoni, whose big-hitting makes him the first choice in the side.

But if consistency is anything to go by, Karthik is almost certain to keep his place solely because of his batting ability.

However, on Wednesday he was just happy his innings was enough to set the platform for victory.

“It’s fantastic to win a close game and I performed my role correctly and am happy,” Karthik added.

“I just thought I will play through. I knew we still had good batting. I had a lot of trust in Ajit (Agarkar), Zaheer (Khan) and (Ramesh) Powar you know.

“They all have international fifties. I just told Ajit, let's keep batting. I am happy we put up a good partnership.”

The two teams move on to Chennai on Saturday, where West Indies will have to win to keep alive their hopes of salvaging anything from the series, before the final match at Vadodara next Wednesday.

Yuvraj Singh and Anil Kumble have been recalled to the side for the last two matches, with Joginder Sharma and RP Singh missing out.

Irfan Pathan has also been included for the final match, after impressing for Baroda in the Ranji Trophy.