Nervy Windies scrape past India
The West Indies managed to scrape past India at Sabina Park on Sunday, winning their tri-series match by just one wicket as they lost six wickets in a short space of time, with Johnson Charles' 97 nearly in vain.
The West Indies managed to scrape past India at Sabina Park on Sunday, winning their tri-series match by just one wicket as they lost six wickets in a short space of time, with Johnson Charles' 97 nearly in vain.
The West Indies needed 230 to win, which may have seemed like a low score but the pitch was spongy and two paced as the Indians struggled to get set, making 229 for seven. The Windies then reached the score after a topsy-turvy knock, with 14 balls to spare.
The hosts won the toss and elected to bowl, as they had against Sri Lanka, and again they did well with the ball from the get-go as only opener Rohit Sharma was able to pass the fifty mark.
Sharma and opening partner Shikhar Dhawan were only able to put on 25 for the first wicket, before Kemar Roach claimed a rare failure on Dhawan's part. He caught a leading edge and Roach took the easy catch off his own bowling.
Sharma then continued with Virat Kohli, but he too failed, also out for 11, as Chris Gayle took a lovely one-handed catch at slip to send him packing, much to bowler Darren Sammy's delight.
Dinesh Karthik then joined Rohit, and they pushed the score from 39 to 98, though they took more than 16 overs to do so and the pace was not brisk at all. Karthik departed at that stage, caught and bowled by Marlon Samuels for 23.
Suresh Raina was Rohit's final partner before the opener was dismissed, having recorded 60 off 89 balls and hitting one six. This was Sammy's second wicket of the day, caught at long on by Johnson Charles.
Raina ended up making 44, with skipper MS Dhoni at the other end, but fell to Roach in the 43rd over, caught behind by Denesh Ramdin. Dhoni, who pulled up with a hamstring issue, departed soon after, bowled by Tino Best.
The excitable paceman then added Ravindra JAdeja to his records, also bowling him cleanly, leaving Ravi Ashwin and Bhuvneshwar Kumar to hit out in the final overs to push the score towards something defendable, adding 17 runs in the final over.
The Windies' chase did not go well in the beginning, as they lost Chris Gayle and Devon Smith to Umesh Yadav early on, and Marlon Samuels to Bhuvneshwar Kumar, all before the score reached 26.
This left Charles and Darren Bravo to rescue the chase, and they did so admirably, putting on 116 together over the span of 23 overs. This pushed the score to 142, and all looked on track, but Bravo's wicket triggered a collapse.
The batsman was out for 55, caught by Dhawan off Ashwin, and the hosts proceeded to lose regular wickets after that. Ishant Sharma got rid of Pollard, before Ashwin bowled Denesh Ramdin, both batsmen having made four runs.
Sammy added 29 runs to the score before being caught by Ashwin off Ishant, leaving Charles to continue his knock. The youngster played more than one risky shot and was lucky not to be out half a dozen times on his way to 97.
He was eventually sent packing in the 41st over with the score on 211, lobbing Yadav straight down Ishant's throat at long on, and if the Windies had lost he would have borne a lot of the criticism for such a daft shot.
As it was, Sunil Narine was the final wicket to fall, with 10 runs required, and it was a nervous few minutes for the fans as Roach and Best brought the chase home, with Roach getting the winning single.
West Indies: Chris Gayle, Johnson Charles, Devon Smith, Marlon Samuels, Darren Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Darren Sammy, Sunil Narine, Kemar Roach, Tino Best
India: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav
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