Wednesday 30 November 2011

India win in a low scoring thriller

India and West Indies provided lots of thrilling matches but not like this as the tailenders and Rohit Sharma provided the win in a low scoring matches that provided lots of twists and turn like the Mumbai Test.
India 213 for 9 (Rohit 72, Roach 3-46) beat West Indies 211 for 9 (Bravo 60) by one wicket



West Indies began with a slow approach as the pitch was slow but this wasn't well working with Barath and Lendl Simmons dismissed by the young pair of Varun Aaron and Vinay Kumar as they struggled to time the ball with the slow pace of the pitch. Down to 52-3,  Darren Bravo and Danza Hyatt provided the key and reviving stand in what would've been a very modest total to chase after the top order crumbled and the middle order tried to hit massive shots and failed. 


Their stand of 75 was full of rich Bravo shots and he extended his good impression after his brilliant stand in the Test series by scoring 60 with lots of shots to the boundaries and his "eyes-to-the-boundary" attitude which the middle order couldn't handle later. 


Danza Hyatt was playing the supporting role but his uncertain decision making in running cost the partnership and probably the chance of West Indies getting a threatening score in a bowling pitch with his run out. 


This had a big knock on effect as the final 10-15 overs were very slow going with India deploying their dangerous spinners of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravendra Jadeja slowing the innings with the attack of pace bowlers as well. The lower order batsmen couldn't handle the bowling but a little cameo by Andre Russell of 22 with his one 6 and 2 fours pushed West Indies to just 211.


India looked like they were going to demolish West Indies with the epic start as Kemar Roach and newbie Anthony Martin were battered by the batting of Virender Sehwag as always. In the first 4 overs, India were 37-0 before Parthiv Patel had a wing and edged the ball to Martin to be dismissed by the dangerous and quick Andre Russell. Supporting partner Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir were soon to be dismissed as Kemar Roah struck back being pumped up by his high bowling figures after being smashed by Sehwag by clean bowling him to gain revenge. 


Suresh Raina soon followed the victim list of the pace bowlers and looked like it was all over for India being at 59-5 but Rohit Sharma and Revendra Jadeja showed their ODI class like he shown in the tour of England by adding a 83 run partnership to save India in the brink of humiliation with their careful batting and being a bit adventuruous but being adventurous always meant that West Indian chances were left begging. 


Although Jadeja was dismissed eventually by an adventurous decision to bring on Kieron Pollard paid off but as Rohit Sharma was in good form and Ashwin was in the crease with 20 overs to get 70 runs, India still looked at ease but Ashwin stayed in the crease to long wanting confidence in the pitch but got bogged down and dismissed for 6 after a falling short in a brilliant team example of a run out by the West Indies.


Rohit Sharma looked to be the only hope for India but was dismissed so India were left at 201-8 and quickly was 201-9 after Vinay Kumar was desperate to finish the game with a slog but actually caused more trouble as India needed 11 runs to win in 23 balls with 1 wicket remaining. Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav were the only hope for India and singles were preceded followed by a succession of 15 dot balls. In the 48th over, Aaron punished the bowlers as he smashed a widish ball for four leaving India needing 4 runs in 8 balls. Aaron wanted to end the tension for sure by smashing a length, straightish ball past mid-on for four to end extend India's winning streak at home to 10 ODIs and still undefeated headin towards Visakhapatnam for the 2nd ODIs out fo 5 and India leading the series by 1-0.







No comments:

Post a Comment