Uzair Rizvi BeyondHeadlines
The second ODI played at Queen’s Park in Port-of-Spain saw rain coming in as India chased down a revised target of 189 in 38 overs.
Amit Mishra’s 4 wicket haul and Kohli’s 81 helped India to win the 2nd ODI by 7 wickets (DL method) to take the lead 2-0 in the 5 match ODI series. Kohli was Man of the Match.
- Courtesy: ESPN-Star
Chasing down 241, India lost Dhawan very early but a 120 run stand between Kohli and Parthiv Patel ensured India a victory.
Rain came down several times during the match and twice during India’s innings when the visitors were 100/1 in 22 overs, 30 runs ahead of the DL-par score. The target was revised as the visitors needed a further 83 runs from 90 balls.
Kohli and Patel settled down quite early and played some magnificent shots all around the park. Kohli was given a life when he was on 38 as Sammy dropped a sharp chance at slip on Bishoo’s delivery.
And then it was no looking back, in between Patel also got to his half-century as he got out for 56.
Kohli and Raina unfurled a few big ones and in process Kohli carelessly gave away his wicket to Bishoo.Kohli reached a landmark as he became the third fastest Indian to score 2000 runs.
Ganguly and Sidhu jointly hold the record for the fastest in 52 innings. He achieved it in 53 innings.
Rampaul, Bishoo and Martin were among the wicket takers with one wicket each and rest it was the same old story giving away too much runs.
Earlier, India won the toss and elected to bowl first on a pitch which was better for batting than one in the previous game. Indian team was unchanged but West Indies brought in Pollard.
West Indies displayed a good batting effort as it progressed to 170/3 after 35 overs.
Darren Bravo was a surprise omission from the team, the hosts got off to a good start with the first wicket putting up 50 runs on the board.
Simmons got to his half-century but gave away his wicket after another 67 run stand between him and Sarwan when he charged down a leg side wide delivery and Patel calmly dislodged the bails.
In-form Sarwan and Samuels steadied the innings once again with the third 50 runs partnership; the two batsmen kept the scoreboard ticking. Meanwhile Sarwan scored his second consecutive half-century.
It was Sarwan’s dismissal that triggered the collapse as the Windies from 175/2 were restricted to 240/9.The lower order didn’t add too much to the score. Sammy rescued the hosts to put up a modest score, he made 22 runs.
Amit Mishra was the tormentor for India as he scalped 4 wickets for 31 runs with his beautiful leg breaks and the googlies that damaged the Caribbean’s badly.
Munaf Patel was economical with his 3 wickets and Pathan picked up 2 important wickets to put the hosts on the backfoot, Harbhajan went wicketless.
Sammy felt his team was about 30 runs short of a good total and Raina praised his bolwers for executing the correct plans as well as Kohli and Patel for their responsible knocks.
The two teams now travel to Antigua for the next two ODI’s on Saturday and Monday.
West Indies are yet to announce the squad for the remaining games. Maybe Gayle will make a comeback.
