Wed, 08 Jun 2011 - India vs West Indies, India Tour of West Indies 2011, 2nd ODI - Bulletin

Kohli, Mishra give India 2-0 lead

Twenty minutes of horror batting display coupled with some magic from leg spinner Amit Mishra undid the steady batting effort from the West Indian top order. The home team was all set to go for final assault with scoreboard reading healthy 192 for 3 at the end of fourty overs. Four overs, five runs, three strokes of madness, and, West Indies had treated their fans to yet another batting collapse. It meant West Indies finish their innings on 240/9 from a position when it looked a score of 260-plus was a possibility.

India in their chase didn’t have much of a problem in getting the revised target of 183 (37 overs) at the loss of three wickets in the 34th over courtesy half-centuries from Virat Kohli and Parthiv Patel. India were well poised at 101 for the loss of Shekhar Dhawan’s wicket who went for 3 when rain interrupted the proceedings and it forced revision in target. The win gives tourists a 2-0 lead in the five match series.

Both Kohli and Patel followed a sensible approach to the chase concentrating on picking up the singles and hitting the big shots when opportunity was presented to the duo. While pick up strokes off his legs were highlight of Patel’s innings, Kohli was strong on the pull and cover drives. West Indies though had their chances but couldn’t garb them. Darren Sammy dropped Kohli on 39 and a couple of hard chances were also put down.

The home team’s challenge was virtually over as duo added 120 for the second wicket in what was turned out to be an easy chase in the end. Parthiv brought up his fifty when he slog swept Anthony Martin for his second six but fell to the same bowler, caught behind when tried to glance one fine for 56.

Kohli added the tempo after Parthiv’s departure hitting half a dozen fours and six on his way to classy 81 before getting 10 runs short of a target. Skipper Suresh Raina remained undefeated on 19-ball 26 hitting a four and six.

Through fifties from Lendl Simmons and Ramnaresh Sarwan plus decent contributions from Dirk Edwards and Marlon Samuels had demonstrated one of their better batting displays but it changed soon. Mishra’s variations, his well disguised googlies in particular, proved to be too much for West Indian lower middle and they receded to 197/7 in 44th over. It needed a breezy knock from skipper Darren Sammy well accompanied by Ravi Rampaul to take West Indies to 240.

After five dot balls in the 41st over bowled by Munaf Patel, Sarwan hit a full toss to Yusuf Pathan at deep square-led to trigger the collapse. With Kieran Pollard coming to bat, West decided it was time for the batting powerplay. But the big hitter’s woeful form in West Indies colors continued; trapped infront of stumps for a duck and the leg spinner smelt blood. Next over, he lured Dwayne Bravo into a weak spoon to long off and then came a moment of brain fade from Caulton Baugh. The wicketkeeper batsman tried to smoke Mishra out of Port of Spain only to find his middle stump disturbed. The Leg-spinner finished with the impressive figures of 4 for 31 in his ten while Munaf Patel, again with his Glen McGrath like line and length, was brilliant having returns of 3 for 35.

For a change, West Indies top order showed urgency and purpose that was missing in the first ODI. Young opener Dirk Edwards was off the blocks hitting some thumping blows in his 28-ball 25 including a six off Harbhajan Singh when he stepped out of the box to hit off-spinner into the straight boundary. His opening partner Lendl Simmons was sedate though showing aggression occasionally. They took score to 57 in 13th over when Mishra got one of his leg spinners to dip turn and jump to graze Edwards’ gloves on way through to Parthiv. Sarwan- Simmons followed opening with another steady act by putting 67 seven runs in nearly 25 overs. Simmons slammed two sixes on his seventh ODI half-century and three fours but couldn’t move on to make a big. He strolled out of his crease for a big one but Parthiv effected a nifty leg side stumping. In walked Samuels and for major part of his 32-ball stay at the crease, Samuels of old was on display. He drove Mishra for creamy four, then dumped short ball from Yusuf to square-leg boundary following it up with a huge straight six. In the same over, he had brain fade marching out of his crease aimlessly to be stumped for 33.

Sarwan’s innings was largely built around dabs, nudges, pushes and occasional boundaries and he brought up his second half-century of the series with a pull shot. Once he fell to Munaf, a familiar inexplicable batting display was witnessed.