India back in contention after ODI win over Windies
PORT OF SPAIN, July 5, (AFP) - India surged back into contention in
the Celkon Mobile Cup Tri-Nation Series with a crushing 102-run victory
over the West Indies in the fourth match at the Queen's Park Oval on
Friday.
At the bottom of the standings following defeats in Jamaica in their
first two matches of the competition, the World Cup holders rebounded
with a tremendous all-round effort in the sultry Trinidad conditions.
|
Indian bowler Umesh Yadav (L) celebrates dismissing West Indies cricketer
Darren Sammy (R) during the fourth match of the Tri-Nation
series between India and West Indies at the Queen’s Park
Oval in Port of Spain on July 5, 2013. India scored 311/7 at
the end of their innings. West Indies all out 171 and so,
India won a crushing 102 – run victory. |
Put in by home captain Dwayne Bravo, the Champions Trophy winners
amassed 311 for seven batting first and then earned a bonus point to go
with the comprehensive win in restricting the home side to 171 all out
after the Windies were set a revised target of 274 off 39 overs under
the Duckworth-Lewis system following a 90-minute interruption for
rain.West Indies have little time to lick their wounds as they face Sri
Lanka on Sunday before the preliminary phase of the series concludes on
Tuesday with the Indians taking on the Sri Lankans.The Caribbean side
still top the table with nine points but India have joined Sri Lanka on
five, although they still trail on net run-rate, leaving all the
possibilities open ahead of the remaining fixtures. With injured regular
captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni looking on approvingly, stand-in skipper
Virat Kohli led from the front with an attacking innings of 102 - his
14th ODI century - in pacing India to their formidable total.
He was given an excellent platform courtesy of an opening partnership
of 123 between Shikhar Dhawan (69) and Rohit Sharma (46) and was in no
mood to waste such a promising foundation, blasting his way to the
hundred in the final over of the innings off 83 deliveries with 13 fours
and two sixes.
He struck the ball cleanly and powerfully from the start of his
innings, and even though wickets were falling regularly at the other
end, the attacking right-hander was able to gradually raise the tempo of
his innings to the point that he was in fully cry and dominating a
seventh-wicket partnership of 90 with Ravi Ashwin (25 not out) off just
52 deliveries."More than my performance, I'm really happy that the team
won, and with the bonus point to get back into contention," said a
delighted Kohli after victory was formalised.
"When you've got three quality teams in a competition like this, you
can expect turnarounds like what happened here. I'm just happy we've got
the result we wanted today so we'll see what happens on Sunday to know
what we have to do in our final match."India's bowlers were equally
determined in defence of the total, the seamers showing impressive
energy and hostility to strike important early blows, none more vital
than Bhuvneshwar Kumar's removal of the dangerous Chris Gayle for just
ten in only the third over.
Omitted from the side for what proved a humiliating 161-run defeat to
Sri Lanka in Jamaica, Kumar fully justified his recall, adding the
scalps of Darren Bravo and Kieron Pollard for a first-ball "duck" for
good measure.Umesh Yadav also snared three wickets while the giant
Ishant Sharma accounted for two key victims upon the resumption from the
rain-break, including top-scorer Johnson Charles (45), during a
nightmarish period of play for the home side when they slipped from 64
for two to 69 for five.An entertaining ninth-wicket partnership of 58
between Kemar Roach and Sunil Narine threatened to deny India the
critical bonus point before Ravindra Jadeja ended the unexpected
resistance with two wickets in two balls.
"Chasing 300 runs was never going to be an easy target, but I
honestly felt we could have done a lot better," said a disappointed
Dwayne Bravo.
"We have an important match against Sri Lanka coming up and we can't
afford to make the same mistakes again."
SCOREBOARD
INDIA INNINGS
R. Sharma c wkpr Ramdin b Best 46
S. Dhawan c D.M. Bravo b Roach 69
V. Kohli c Sammy b D.J. Bravo 102
S. Raina c Sammy b Samuels 10
D. Karthik c wkpr Ramdin b Best 06
M. Vijay c Charles b Pollard 27
R. Jadeja run out 02
R. Ashwin not out 25
Extras (4b, 7lb, 13w) 24
Total (7 wickets, 50 overs) 311
Fall of wickets: 1-123 (Dhawan), 2-141 (Sharma)
3-156 (Raina), 4-168 (Karthik)
5-210 (Vijay), 6-221 (Jadeja)
7-311 (Kohli)
Did not bat: B. Kumar, I. Sharma, U. Yadav.
Bowling: Sammy 8-1-28-0 (1w)
Roach 10-2-69-1 (2w)
Best 10-0-51-2 (5w)
D.J. Bravo 7-0-57-1 (4w)
Narine 5-1-35-0
Samuels 8-0-39-1
Pollard 2-0-21-1 (1w)
WEST INDIES INNINGS
(Revised target: 274 off 39 overs)
C. Gayle c wkpr Karthik b Kumar 10
J. Charles c Raina b I. Sharma 45
D.M. Bravo c Ashwin b Kumar 01
M. Samuels c wkpr Karthik b I. Sharma 06
K. Pollard c Ashwin b Kumar 00
D.J. Bravo lbw Yadav 14
D. Ramdin c Kumar b Yadav 09
D. Sammy lbw Yadav 12
K. Roach b Jadeja 34
S. Narine c I. Sharma b Jadeja 21
T. Best not out 00
Extras (1b, 10lb, 8w) 19
Total (10 wickets, 34 overs) 171
Fall of wickets: 1-14 (Gayle), 2-25 (D.M. Bravo)
3-64 (Samuels), 3-65 (Pollard)
3-69 (Charles), 6-91 (Ramdin)
7-108 (D.J. Bravo), 8-113 (Sammy)
171-9 (Narine), 10-171 (Roach)
Bowling: Kumar 8-1-29-3 (1w)
Yadav 8-1-32-3 (4w)
Sharma 7-1-30-2 (3w)
Jadeja 7-1-44-2
Ashwin 4-0-25-0
Man of the Match: Virat Kohli
Next match: July 7 - West Indies vs Sri Lanka |
