North Sound (Antigua): Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the bowlers fashioned India’s 93-run win over a lacklustre West Indies in the third ODI, giving the visitors an unassailable 2-0 lead in the five-match series here. The first game had been washed out.
India overcame a bad start to post 251 for four on a slowish surface, largely due to the efforts of Dhoni (78 n o), Kedar Jadhav (40 n o) and Ajinkya Rahane (72).
The Indian bowlers then proved too good for the inexperienced West Indies’ batting line-up, dismissing the hosts for 158 in 38.1 overs.
Hardik Pandya (2/32) used the short ball effectively while chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav (3/41) was impressive again, foxing the opposition with his wrong ones. Offie Ravichandran Ashwin (3/28) also proved a handful for the opposition.
Except for Jason Mohammed (40, 61b, 4×4) none of the other West Indies batsmen showed the willingness to take the battle to the Indians. Except for a 54-run partnership for the sixth wicket between Mohammed and Rovman Powell (30), there was no resistance against the Indian attack. The chase was always going to be difficult on a double-paced pitch, but the way the West Indies batsmen capitulated had the home supporters frustrated.
Meanwhile skipper Virat Kohli was a happy man, after India’s clinical win. He hinted that there will be some changes in the team for the two remaining ODIs.
Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik and Mohammed Shami are yet to get a game in the series. “We will surely look into (making changes). We have quite a few players who haven’t had a game in a while,” Kohli said after the game.
The skipper was happy to have won a good toss. “I think it was a clinical performance again. “Early on, there was quite a bit of moisture, but I knew it would become slow. Our bowlers exploited the condition brilliantly,” Kohli informed.
Meanwhile Dhoni who emerged top scorer and was declared man of the match, stated that he is like ‘wine which gets better with age’.
Asked how come he is getting better with age, pat came the reply from Dhoni: “It’s like wine.” The satisfaction was writ large having scored runs on a difficult track.
“Our top-order has been doing the bulk of the scoring in the last one-one and a half years, so it felt good to get an opportunity and score runs. I think it was the nature of the wicket that made the knock special. There was variable bounce,” he added.
Brief scores: India 251 for 4 (MS Dhoni 78 n o, Ajinkya Rahane 72) beat West Indies 158 in 38.1 overs (Jason Mohammed 40, Ravi Ashwin 3/28, Kuldeep Yadav 3/41, Hardik Pandya 2/32) by 93 runs.
Agencies