India Out-Bowls West Indies to Win in ODI Series
The rain finally allowed India to finish a game in the ODI tri-series with Australia and the West Indies—and what a game. India brushed past the West Indies in a low-scoring nail-biter by a margin of 16 runs, keeping India in contention for a place in the final on Sunday.
The future looked grim during the first half of the match at Kuala Lumpur’s Kinara Oval, when India was dismissed with just 162 runs in 39.3 overs. Dwayne Smith of the West Indies kept the Indian batsmen restricted, taking 4-31 from his 10 overs.
But the match was won by the Indian bowlers, pinning the Windies back even further; the islanders were all out at 146 in 40.5 overs. Harbhajan Singh was proclaimed ‘man of the match’ this time, finishing with 3-35 off eight overs. He did the mopping up after the commendable performances of Munaf Patel, Agarkar, and Sreesanth, who all took two wickets each.
India’s bowling success stemmed from an attack on the Windies’ middle-order, making the weaker links cave in. The West Indian battling lineup was tweaked for this game, placing opener Chris Gayle at six and captain Brian Lara at eight, in hopes that the underperformers would step up to the challenge. Shivnaraine Chanderpaul and R Morton made a decent showing, with 21 and 27 runs respectively, but only Lara’s unbeaten 40 showed any significant contest to the Indian bowlers.
Meanwhile, Sachin Tendulkar was once again the high batsman of the game, though his 65 runs were not even half of his magnificent unbeaten 141 in India’s first game of the series. Harbhajan Singh earned hero of the match twice over by proving the second-best Indian batsman as well as the team’s finest bowler, with a deft 37 runs.
Captain Rahul Dravid was elated but not surprised with the team’s victory, asserting that the team’s belief that the match could be won had pulled them through. “It was not a coincidence. We did believe that we could win this one. We talked about it in the break,” Dravid said. “We knew that the West Indies batting has been struggling except for Lara who comes out to bat in the middle. So we thought if we could pick a few early wickets, we would stand a chance of winning.”
The skipper praised the “great performance” of all of the bowlers, saying that they “bolwed beautifully.” And as for the less-than-phenomenal batting, Dravid concedes that “We did not bat to our potential.” But, he points, out, “one must keep in mind that we haven’t played for the last two months, to come back and win in this fashion is good.”
The West Indies have already garnered a spot at Sunday’s final, with a total of nine series points. Australia stands behind with seven, and India now treads upon the Aussies’ heels with six. The Indians will need to beat the Australians’ world-champion team on Friday in order to meet the Windies once again on Sunday.