It was yet another dominating all round performance from team India that powered them to a seven-wicket victory over defending champions West Indies in the World Twenty20 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday.
India’s second consecutive win was identical to their first, as the Indian spinners shared all seven wickets to set the platform by restricting West Indies to 129, before Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli struck fifties to make the journey easier.
India suffered an early hiccup in their chase to the mediocre target as Shikhar Dhawan was removed without troubling the scorers in the first over. Shikhar could consider him unlucky as replays showed Samuel Badree’s delivery was sliding down the leg, but the dismissal had hardly troubled the Indian side as Kohli and Rohit ensured full points with a 106-run second wicket partnership.
Kohli was cleaned up by Andre Russell in the 15th over but by then India were well ahead in landing their win. The right-handed struck five fours and a six during his knock of 54 from 41 balls. Incoming batsman Yuvraj Singh lasted 19 balls for 10 runs before he returned in the last over with India a run away from victory.
Rohit carried his bat and remained unbeaten with a mesmerizing 62 as the former World T20 champions anchored the win with two balls to spare.
Earlier, put in to bat first West Indies did not have the start they were looking for despite having the monstrous Chris Gayle and Dwayne Smith in the middle.
West Indies had just 38 runs on the scorecard when Smith was caught and bowled by Ravichandran Ashwin in the 8th over while Gayle on the other end looked very unnatural to his usual characteristics.
The gigantic hitter of the ball, Gayle was dropped twice – on zero at slips by Ashwin and on 19 by Yuvraj at deep midwicket – but he failed to capitalise on the opportunity and eventually walked back with 34 from 33 balls.
West Indies never recovered from their slow start and kept losing wickets in regular intervals. They were further sent to back foot with man of the match Amit Mishra striking twice in two balls to send back Marlon Samuels (14) and Dwayne Bravo, zero, in the 15th over.
Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja continued with the breakthroughs as he claimed the Caribbean skipper Darren Sammy and Andre Russell in quick succession before Lendl Simmons showed some urgency for quick runs. Simmons clobbered two sixes along with a four in his 27 off 22 balls before falling as Jadeja’s third victim on the night.
