Second ODI: West Indies draw level with victory over India
Barbados: West Indies drew level in the three-match ODI series with a facile six-wicket win in rain-hit second ODI against India by riding high on Shai Hope's fifty and three-fers from Romario Shepherd and Gudkesh Motie at Bridgetown's Kensington Oval here on Saturday.
Sending India to bat first, West Indies bundled out the visitors for 181 runs inside 41 overs, despite Ishan Kishan (55 off 55 balls with 6 boundaries a six) and Shubman Gill (34) stitched an opening stand of 90 runs.
West Indies chased down the target, riding high on an unbeaten 91 runs partnership for the fifth wicket between Hope (63*) and Keacy Carty (48*).
Kyle Mayers (36 off 28 balls with 4 boundaries and 2 sixes) and Brandon King were off the block in a flurry, sewing up 53 runs for the first wicket, before falling to pacer Shardul Thakur after gloving a flick to Umran Malik stationed at short fine leg.
Shardul struck in the same over, trapping King (15 off 23 balls with 3 boundaries) to reduce West Indies to 54/2.
Hope began in great style by getting off the mark with a six, but Shardul struck again by removing Alick Athanaze (6) off a surprise-surprise bouncer, caught behind the stumps by Ishan.
Hope did not fritter away the good start as India did. Though Shimron Hetmyer lost his wicket to Kuldeep Yadav's googly, the captain kept the gas burning, anticipating DLS coming into the play due to overcast conditions.
Once Carty got into his groove, he helped West Indies get closer to the target along with Hope who rotated the strike fruitfully. In this process, Hope reached his fifty in 70 balls and took Windies total past 150 runs.
Earlier, India rested captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to test the bench strength ahead of Asia Cup and ODI World Cup. This gamble did not work out. Ishan took his time to settle in because of the overcast condition helping swing bowlers.
Gill (34), on the other hand, kept the board ticking with a wide range of shots to gather runs in boundaries.
Ishan was lucky to have survived close calls in his early 20s, but raced to his second ODI fifty in 51 balls, outpacing Gill. And just when, the opening stand was inching towards 100 runs mark, Gill lost his cool and was holed out to Alzarri Joseph in the deep trying to loft dancing down the wicket of Motie's flighted ball.
Gill's wicket triggered a dramatic collapse of 5 for 23 that India never really recovered from. Ishan was the first to walk back, caught by Athanaze at backward point, and then Axar Patel, who was promoted to No.4 position, gloved a short ball to Hope behind the stumps. Shepherd claimed both these wickets in a jiffy.
Hardik Pandya and Sanju Samson did not last long either. Jayden Seales had Hardik off a snorter, and in the very next ball, Yannic Cariah claimed Samson outside-edging to Hope, leaving India reeling at 113/5 as rain arrived to halt the proceedings for the next 45 minutes.
The Windies bowlers continued to wreak havoc. Shepherd struck again, giving marching orders to Ravindra Jadeja (10) after he gave an easy catch to Cariah at deep backward square.
Three balls then, Athanaze took another sharp catch at backward point to end Suryakumar Yadav's after making 24 of as many balls.
Shardul posted India's total past the 150 runs mark with a couple of glorious boundaries. Joseph, however, struck twice in three balls and Motie wrapped up the proceedings with one ball to spare in the 41st over.
Brief scores: India 181 all out in 40.5 overs (Ishan Kishan 55; Romario Shepherd 3-37, Gudakesh Motie 3-36) lost to West Indies 182/4 in 36.4 overs (Shai Hope 63*, Keacy Carty 48*; Shardul Thakur 3-42) by 6 wickets.
IBNS
Senior Staff Reporter at Northeast Herald, covering news from Tripura and Northeast India.
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