NEW DELHI, India, CMC – A now familiar batting implosion derailed West Indies’ run chase, as the Caribbean side quickly returned to their old habits in a 48-run defeat to India here yesterday.
In pursuit of 264 for victory in the second One-Day International at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, West Indies slumped from 170 for two in the 36th over to 215 all out off 46.3 overs – losing their last eight wickets for just 45 runs.
Opener Dwayne Smith missed out on a maiden ODI hundred with a run-a-ball career-best 97, and it was his dismissal in the 36th over that triggered the fatal slide.
Kieron Pollard, promoted to number three, managed 40 from 50 balls while Darren Bravo, who opened with Smith, scored 26 from 44 deliveries.
They were the only three batsmen to pass 20, however, as seamer Mohammed Shami (4-36) combined with left-arm spinner Ravi Jadeja (3-44) to destroy the innings.
Leg-spinner Amit Mishra, finding bounce and turn, dried up the scoring in the middle overs and put pressure on the middle order and his spell of two for 40 from his ten overs proved incisive.
India had earlier posted 263 for seven off their 50 overs, with Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina both striking 62 and captain MS Dhoni rallying the innings at the end with an important unbeaten 51 off 40 balls.
Fast bowler Jerome Taylor picked up three wickets but conceded an expensive 54 runs from his ten overs.
The defeat saw India level the five-match series at 1-1, with the third match carded for next Tuesday in Visakhapatnam.
Coming off a clinical performance in Wednesday’s first ODI in Kochi, the Windies had hoped for a repeat but sustaining those lofty standards proved beyond their reach.
They started well, however, reducing India to 74 for three in the 18th over, after the hosts won the toss and opted for first knock.
Taylor got one to come back to Shikhar Dhawan (1) in the second over to hit the left-hander’s off-stump with the score on four and his partner Ajinkya Rahane added 46 for the second wicket with Ambati Rayudu (32), before driving medium pacer Darren Sammy’s slower ball to Dwayne Bravo at cover, to fall for 12 in the 13th over.
When Rayudu, who faced 54 balls and struck three fours, edged left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn to Sammy at slip in the 18th over, the Windies were in command.
However, Kohli and Raina breathed life into the innings with a fourth wicket stand of 105, a partnership that set the ground work for India’s late rally.
The right-handed Kohli faced 78 balls and struck five fours while Raina lasted 70 balls and counted five fours and two sixes.
They eventually fell within 23 balls of each other, Raina holing out to Pollard at long-off off Taylor and Kohli also perishing in the deep, with Samuels taking the catch inches away from the ropes off seamer Ravi Rampaul.
On 196 for five in the 41st over, India needed someone to drive the innings and Dhoni stepped forward, hitting five fours and a six in shepherding the lower order.
In reply, West Indies got a patient start from Smith and Darren Bravo, the pair putting on 64 off 79 balls a measured partnership.
Smith’s first 11 balls yielded just four runs but he blossomed well to hit 11 fours and two sixes. Darren Bravo never quite got going, and was bowled off-stump by Mohammed Shami playing down the wrong line, after counting two fours. Smith and Pollard seemed to have put the Windies on course for victory in their 82-run, second wicket partnership that lasted 94 balls.
Both played circumspectly but Pollard was unusually subdued with six runs from his first 16 balls. He cleared mid-wicket for six with Jadeja to mark his first boundary in the 19thover, and added a four and two more sixes, before missing a heave at Mishra in the 29thover and playing on at 136 for two.
Smith, meanwhile, picked off the boundaries when they came and moved to 48 by hammering seamer Umesh Yadav through cover for his sixth four in the 20th over before bringing up his seventh ODI half-century with a single to long on in the next over.
He celebrated by lifting Mishra into the stands at mid-wicket and then smashed three fours off Kohli’s second over, the 32nd of the innings, to race to 87.
Smith struck Mohammed Shami cleanly back overhead for six to move to within three of a century but was bowled off the very next ball, playing on to one that swung in, hit his pads and disturbed his stumps.
Stroke-maker Marlon Samuels was almost unrecognisable from the player who reeled off a sublime unbeaten 126 in the first ODI, and endured a painful struggle for 16 off 38 balls.
It was almost a relief when he swatted Yadav to Kohli at cover at the start of the 40thover at 183 for four but those following him proved just as wasteful.
Scoreboard
INDIA
A Rahane c DJ Bravo b Sammy 12
S Dhawan b Taylor 1
A Rayudu c Sammy b Benn 32
V Kohli c Samuels b Rampaul 62
S Raina c Pollard b Taylor 62
*+MS Dhoni not out 51
R Jadeja b Taylor 6
B Kumar c Pollard b DJ Bravo 18
Mohammed Shami not out 1
Extras (b4, lb1, w13) 18
TOTAL (7 wkts, 50 overs) 263
Did not bat: A Mishra, U Yadav.
Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Dhawan, 1.4 overs), 2-50 (Rahane, 12.5), 3-74 (Rayudu, 17.4), 4-179 (Raina, 36.5), 5-196 (Kohli, 40.4), 6-219 (Jadeja, 45.1), 7-248 (Kumar, 49)
Bowling: Rampaul 8-0-47-1 (w2), Taylor 10-0-54-3 (w2), Benn 10-0-47-1 (w1), DJ Bravo 8-0-51-1 (1w), Sammy 4-0-14-1, Samuels 5-1-21-0, Russell 3-0-14-0 (w2), Pollard 2-0-10-0.
WEST INDIES
D Smith b Mohammed Shami 97
DM Bravo b Mohammed Shami 26
K Pollard b Mishra 40
M Samuels c Kohli b Yadav 16
+D Ramdin c Raina b Mishra 3
*DJ Bravo c Dhawan b Mohammed Shami 10
A Russell st Dhoni b Jadeja 4
D Sammy b Jadeja 1
R Rampaul c & b Mohammed Shami 16
J Taylor c Kumar b Jadeja 0
S Benn not out 0
Extras (lb1, w1) 2
TOTAL (all out, 46.3 overs) 215
Fall of wickets: 1-64 (DM Bravo, 13.1 overs), 2-136 (Pollard, 28.5), 3-170 (Smith, 35.4), 4-183 (Samuels, 39.1), 5-189 (Ramdin, 40.2), 6-195 (Russell, 42.1), 7-199 (Sammy, 43), 8-199 (DJ Bravo, 43.2), 9-201 (Taylor, 44.2), 10-215 (Rampaul, 46.3)
Bowling: Kumar 7-0-32-0, Yadav 9 9-0-42-1, Mohammed Shami 9.3-0-36-4, Jadeja 9-0-44-3 (w1), Mishra 10-2-40-2, Kohli 2-0-20-0.
Result: India won by 48 runs.
Series: Five-match series level 1-1.
Man-of-the-Match: Mohammed Shami.
Toss: India.
Umpires: I. Gould, S Ravi; TV – C Shamshuddin.