Uzair Rizvi BeyondHeadlines
Rohit Sharma scored an unbeaten half-century to guide the visitors to a 4 wicket win over West Indies to lead the 5 match ODI series 1-0.
On a slow wicket at the Queen’s Park in Port-of-Spain, Indian batsmen had to work hard to earn this win. Chasing a modest total of 214, India lost two crucial wickets of Patel and Kohli quite cheaply, though Shikhra Dhawan held the innings at one end and kept the target within the circuit as he reached to his maiden ODI half Century, he got out on 51.
The visitors were tottering at 104/4 when an 80 runs partnership between Sharma and Raina took them close to the win as Harbhajan finished it off with a six on.
Rohit Sharma who batted sensibly remained not out as India reached the target with 31 balls to spare after losing 6 wickets.
Rampaul and Martin took two wickets apiece.Bishoo bowled well and almost got in Sharma LBW if the UDRS system would have been in place. It was quite early in the innings for Sharma but he got another life as Umpire turned it down.
Pollard was surprisingly left out of the playing 11 while Indian’s opted for Amit Mishra in place of Ashwin.
Earlier, West Indies won the toss and decided to bat first. Windies lost both their openers Simmons and Bravo jr. inside the mandatory powerplay overs after getting to a slow start. They were 59/3 after 19 overs.
Sarwan and Samuels then put on 82 runs for the fourth wicket to steady the ship as both the players completed their 50’s.Samuels then added on 36 runs with Bravo sr.
There was a tumbling of wickets as the Caribbean’s lost 4 wickets for 15 runs to make a paltry score of 214/9 in 50 overs.
Harbhajan continued his fine bowling as he scalped 3 wickets for 22 with Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel and Raina grabbing two each.
Others too did well as they managed to dry up the hosts as they felt thirsty for runs.
Sammy blamed his batsmen for the poor show while Raina praised his bowlers who did a commendable job to restrict the Windies.
Rohit Sharma was adjudged Man of the Match as he steered his side to the victory.
Next match is at the same venue on Wednesday.
