Sat, 04 Jun 2011 - India vs West Indies, India Tour of West Indies 2011, Only T20I - Bulletin

Badrinath, spinners help India to win tour opener

For West Indies, it was a case of tackling strong Indian spin department if they wanted to give themselves a chance to win the game. And, as it turned out, their frailty against the spinners, yet again, proved to be their downfall. Chasing a competitive total of 160 on a turning Trinidad surface, the home team batsmen failed to dominate the off-spin trio of India that saw them lose to India in the first and only t-20 international by 16 runs.

Earlier India overcame a spirited bowling spell from West Indies skipper Darren Sammy to post an imposing 159 after they were asked to have first use of the deck, which appeared to be a spin bowling friendly. The West Indies skipper took all four first wickets to have fallen that had visitors reeling at 56 for 4 inside nine overs but debutant S Badrinath’s 37-ball 43 followed by cameos from Yusuf Pathan and Harbhajan Singh helped India to undo Sammy’s heroics with the ball. The win is India’s first against West Indies in the shortest format as previous two outings have gone West Indies’ way.

It was a tale of inexperienced West Indies batting lineup not coming to the terms against Harbhajan Singh, R Ashwin and Yusuf Pathan as trio strangulated them in the middle overs that led to asking rate jumping up to more than 15 runs in the 16th over. Young CD Barnwell, though, did hit some lusty blow in the dying moments that had discarded Chris Gayle up on his feet in the stands. But there was no Gayleseque batting effort during the preceding period as Marlon Samuels and Darren Bravo ate up too many deliveries for the third wicket. The duo took 67 balls for their 62 runs and that was where India sneaked in some tight overs to have West Indies challenge all but over.

Only 77 runs were scored off 12 overs between three of the spinners when situation demanded more from the home team. West Indies were rocked back early by Ashwin and Munaf Patel removing Lendl Simmons (to a poor decision though) and Andre Fletcher respectively to have them 22 for 2 in fifth over.Bravo and Samuels followed the early strikes with a rebuilding act and hit boundaries few and far between to let Indian bowlers to dominate the proceedings. Both were dismissed by Harbhajan to puncture West Indies batting effort. To be fair, it was India all the way in the second innings to get their Caribbean tour off to a welcome start.

Indian batting effort could be divided in two parts with first fifteen overs belonging to West Indies and last five had Indian domination written all over them. The match winning domination was set up by Badrinath-Rohit Sharma stand and rounded off by late blitz from Yusuf and Harbhajan.

Badrinath, a heavy scorer in Indian domestic cricket and the IPL, entered the scene with Sammy all over India. Often criticized by the critics for the lack of abilities and doubting his place in the side, Sammy produced a thoughtful bowling spell to snare Shekhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Parthiv Patel and his opposite number Suresh Raina to give India some scary moments.

The medium pacer used his slower ones and short deliveries to a good effect with pitch offering some assistance to his style of bowling. Badrinath appeared as cool as a cucumber accumulating runs through his typical nudges, dabs and occasional aggressive strokes to keep the scoreboard ticking over. He found an able alley in Rohit and both combined to put on 71 runs for the fifth wicket to lay a strong foundation for Yusuf-Harbhajan late blitz. He had a slice of luck on the score of 24 when Ravi Rampual had him caught off a no-ball and off-spinner Ashley Nurse grassing an easy chance in his follow through. That doesn’t undermine his man of the match performance.

Rohit hit two sixes in his 23-ball 26 before being dismissed of a superb piece of leg-break bowling by Devendra Bishoo but that didn’t end Windies trouble. Yusuf slammed two sixes while Harbhajan had one to surge the score to 159.With One-day series starting in two days, the home team will have to come up with a solution about their woes against the spinners, otherwise, Suresh Raina led side will have no problems in trouncing them in ODI’s as well.