It was the second ODI between India and West Indies at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, Delhi. India had to win this one to get back in the series. The pitch at Kotla behaved rather in favour of the bowlers and initially, batting was hard due to the uneven bounce from the track. As it happened, India won the toss and opted to bat first. This was quite an interesting decision as MS Dhoni rarely chooses to bat after winning the toss.
It was Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane who opened the innings for India while Ravi Rampaul started off proceedings for West Indies. It was quite a good start for West Indies as Dhawan was bowled by Jerome Taylor right in the second over of the innings. And India were one down in no time. Then there was a small partnership built between Rahane and Rayudu. Today, Rayudu was sent up the order ahead of Kohli. After a short partnership, Rahane was dismissed. Then Kohli came to bat. Rayudu was dismissed shortly after that by Benn. Then came the great partnership between Kohli and Raina. Both built a strong partnership to rescue the team. Raina played aggressively while Kohli supported him well. They scored at a good scoring rate. It was a century partnership which was finally broken by Jerome Taylor. Raina tried to hit a ball over the long off region but he did not manage to middle the ball and as a result he was caught in the long off region by Keiron Pollard. He scored 62 runs off 60 deliveries with 5 fours and 2 sixes. Kohli was dismissed shortly after that in quite a similar fashion. He too scored 62 runs off 78 deliveries. At the death overs, MS Dhoni played a fantastic cameo innings and poised the innings perfectly with the tail enders. He remained unbeaten on 51 runs off 40 deliveries with 5 fours and a six. India managed to score 263 runs at the end of 50 overs.
Chasing down 264 runs was never going to be easy. But West Indies started their innings well. Today Darren Bravo opened up the innings with Dwayne Smith and the opening partnership contributed 64 runs when Bravo was bowled by Mohammad Shami in the 14th over of the innings. Then came the brilliant partnership between Keiron Pollard and Dwayne Smith. Both were hitting the ball well and scored quick runs. Pollard was striking the ball well but in the 29th over of the innings Pollard edged a ball off Amit Mishra while trying to hit a straight drive and the ball went on to dislodge the stumps and thus Pollard was dismissed. But Smith was playing brilliantly on one end. He was hitting the ball well and was on the verge of scoring a century. But the change of pace from Mohammad Shami deceived him and he was bowled at the score of 97 runs. Indian bowlers tightened up things after that and wickets kept falling for West Indies at regular intervals. Samuels, Ramdin and Russell were dismissed in quick successions. Russell was dismissed by an extraordinary piece of stumping from Dhoni. In the very same over, Sammy was bowled by Jadeja. Wickets kept on falling and finally West Indies were bundled at a score of 215 runs. The middle order and the tail enders really disappointed. West Indies were 170 for 2 at one stage and they were all down for 215 runs. That is poor. While on the other hand, it was a brilliant display of bowling and fielding by Indians. Mohammad Shami took 4 wickets by giving 36 runs while Jadeja took 3 wickets by giving 44 runs.
The series gets labelled at 1-1 after India’s win today. India won the match by 48 runs and we are up for the third ODI at Vizag.