Gros Islet (St. Lucia), July 3: Rain played spoilsport in the third one-day international between India and the West Indies with the hosts reaching 57/1 in 9.3 overs before another interruption forced players indoors at the Beausejour Stadium here on Friday. Rain stopped play four times bringing the overs down from 41, to 39, to 36 and then to 27 per side.

The match started two hours and five minutes late after rain forced a delayed start. But the showers returned after 3.3 overs with the West Indies at 27/0 after visiting captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and opted to field.

Chris Gayle (27) gave the hosts a rollicking start hitting Ishant Sharma for a couple of boundaries in each of his first two overs.

Left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra received similar treatment in his second over — a couple of boundaries — before rain intervened for the second time.

Play resumed after a 15-minute delay but the distraction was enough to unsettle the West Indies captain, who departed chasing a widish delivery from Nehra. Gayle slashed the first ball after resumption straight into Dhoni’s hands. His 14-ball stay at the crease contained six hits to the fence.

Runako Morton (12 not out off 25 balls) was joined by Ramnaresh Sarwan (14 not out off 18) and the duo braved the stop-start nature of the game to take the score to 56/1 in 9.1 overs before rain intervened for a third time. — PTI