Dwayne Bravo's all-round brilliance helped West Indies pull off a shock win over India in the World Twenty20 at Lord's.
Bravo struck an adventurous half-century to guide the West Indians to a seven-wicket victory in the Super Eights clash which has thrown open Group E.
He finished unbeaten on 66, scored from only 36 deliveries, with the winning runs coming in the penultimate over when he lofted a majestic six over extra cover off Zaheer Khan.
Earlier, Bravo claimed four wickets with the ball as reigning champions India recovered from a slow start to set a 154-run target.
West Indies also struggled at the beginning of their innings and Bravo walked to the crease at 42 for two in the eighth over.
But his ability to manipulate the ball all around the wicket, married to his awesome striking ability, meant Chris Gayle's team got home with eight balls to spare.
The match was finished in a hurry as Bravo and veteran Shivnarine Chanderpaul blitzed 47 runs in the final 3.4 overs.
Having set up that late dash with a cunning alliance with Lendl Simmons, Bravo made the most of being afforded a life on 27 moments before his third-wicket partner holed out for 44.
A mix-up should have resulted in Bravo being run out by wicketkeeper Mahendra Dhoni but his failure to gather with the stumps at his mercy proved crucial.
Later in the over, Bravo lofted the first of his three sixes and the second, a steepler over long-off in the 17th over, sent down by fast bowler Ishant Sharma, virtually sealed the result.
Sixteen runs came off that Sharma over and Harbhajan Singh - who bowled a maiden in the powerplay period - was taken for 15 in the next.
So much depends on West Indies captain Gayle in this format but his relative failure - he was out to a skier after launching at off-spinner Yusuf Pathan - proved irrelevant this time.
West Indies now face England's conquerors South Africa tomorrow, knowing a victory will put them on the verge of the semi-finals.
Yuvraj Singh had earlier revived India with a blistering late assault on a slow pitch.
Destructive left-hander Yuvraj crashed 67 as the Indians recovered from 66 for four in the 13th over.
West Indies neglected the opportunity to snare him later in that same over, sent down by Bravo, when Andre Fletcher floored a catch at deep square leg.
Yuvraj was unbeaten on 32 at the time but a late rally of 34 runs from 11 deliveries provided his innings with real impetus.
Three wickets inside the powerplay overs forced India to re-adjust their sights, after winning the toss, on a pitch which Sri Lanka and Pakistan struggled to score fluently on earlier in the day.
Openers Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir were both undone by miscued pulls - the latter to a brilliant running catch, taken over his head, by Simmons.
When captain Dhoni drilled straight to deep cover, West Indies would have harboured hopes of chasing something closer to a run-a-ball.
But Yuvraj opened his shoulders to stunning effect during a 64-run stand with Yusuf, which came off just 35 balls.
His most audacious stroke came off Jerome Taylor when he whipped a full delivery off the stumps over the rope at deep midwicket.
Yusuf, whose own cameo reaped three fours and a six, perished in the final over when he picked out Simmons in the deep for 31.
But Harbhajan finished the innings in style by finding the boundary with the final three deliveries.




Your Comments
schoudhry
Ok I will be gracious in what was quite a surprising defeat. After all this is a gentleman's game, I will say (very grudgingly) the WI were a better outfit on this particular day.But u have to admit my prediction about Gayle was bang on target. He is no Viv Richards or Gary Sobers. Sadly,no one talks about Bravo or anyone else on the WI team. India will be back. The trophy is there for the picking. If not India, then my second pick is SA.
Madhamish
Fantastic game! Am so chuffed for the Windies, now SA can send India home and make the trophy our own.
pthomas
I predicted this outcome - Windies winning this game, before the game started.
They beat South Africa in the 2004 ICC Tournament. And as I said before This
tournament is following the same trend, however I am sure SA will remember 2004 and will be tougher in the 20/20 version. I am sticking with Windies. They
are my sentimental favourite......
tahababa
schoudhry, be gracious in defeat, i mean everyone was talking about how west indies are done without gayle, but here we see gayle didn't get a big score and they still beat india by 7 wickets, that means they have more depth than people thought they had. neways both india and pak have their work cut out for them for the next game. I already said this before, that the hard part starts now, looks like pak and india found out the hard way today
milkman
Great win.Bravo was awesome!
schoudhry
Someone was saying, I dia is shivering its boots because the Great Chris Gayle is back in the line-up. Well, what his score? Two hundred something? Listen folks, no team in the world has the depth that Indian batting has. And if Y&Y are in song as they were in this match, even the world's best bowlers will get stomach cramps. I guess u have guessed who I am talking about.