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| Man of The Match Darren Sammy |
West Indies desperately needed a win after being brought
in and butchered for celebrating Sachin Tendulkar retirement. Their deposed
captain Darren Sammy kept his cool finally leading his team to victory on
Sunday, the 24th of November, 2013. Salvaging their lost pride and
overcoming their suicidal tendencies twice during the match West Indies managed
to beat India by 2 wickets in the second one day international (ODI) in
Visakhapatnam. For once, both teams matched each other in terms of ups and
downs, flip-flops, dropped catches and fielding blemishes. Of course, in
bowling West Indies managed to block India effectively midway while
Indian bowlers were lackluster except for Ashwin.
West Indies won the toss and maybe due to the dew factor elected
to field first. This time Rohit Sharma could not take his dream run forward and
got out early with Shikhar Dhawan too unable to stick on for long. But Virat
Kohli gave the momentum needed and was poised for his 18th ODI
hundred thus creating a record of scoring five centuries each in two
consecutive years. With good support from Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina he took
the score to 194 for 3 in the 35th over. At that stage India seemed to
be on course for a 300 plus total. However, inspired bowling by Rampaul, Holder
and Sammy deprived Kohli (99 off 100 balls) of his hundred almost choking India. Raina this
time too could not go on for a longer innings and perished to a bad shot. But for
a late charge by captain Dhoni (51 not out) India could not have reached an
imposing total of 288/7 on a slowish pitch. The match was evenly poised because
of the heavy dew.
West Indies, this time without Chris Gayle, started badly
losing two wickets for 23 runs. But then Powell (59) and Darren Bravo (50)
brought up the first hundred run partnership of the tour and they had the first
breath of win at 123 for 2. Unpredictability took over as both fell quickly despite
being let off several times. Simmons (62) kept hope alive still and at 185 for
4 West Indies were cruising. They let it go
too and struggled losing wickets till the end. Finally Darren Sammy (63 not out
off just 45 balls) overcame his team’s suicidal instincts and reached 289 for 8
winning the match by 2 wickets with 3 balls to spare. He was rightfully chosen the
Man of the Match. The Scorecard:
With the three-match
India-West Indies ODI Series locked at 1-1 the third and final encounter in Kanpur on 27th
November looks interesting. The final will be a day match and therefore the dew
factor affecting mainly the bowlers of the team fielding second is being ruled
out. The early wintry morning conditions could of course help fast bowlers
though and the toss could still be tricky.
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