The West Indies defeated India by two wickets in the second ODI against India at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam to level the series 1-1. Darren Sammy and Lendl Simmons, who shared an 82-run partnership, were the stars for the West Indies. Man of the match Darren Sammy scored a blistering knock of 63 runs off just 45 deliveries. In this match defining innings Sammy struck 4 fours and 4 sixes with a strike-rate of 140.
In pursuit of a challenging target of 289, West Indies lost the early wicket of Johnson Charles as he was caught and bowled by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Marlon Samuels made eight with couple of beautiful cover drives but was soon out, caught by Dhoni off the bowling of Mohit Sharma after a loose shot.
Windies then started to rebuild via a 100 run partnership Darren Bravo and Kieron Powell, who each made half centuries. Darren Bravo, though, was caught by Dhoni off the bowling of Ravichandran Ashwin to bring the hosts back in the game. Ashwin then got his second wicket of the innings, enticing Kieran Powell to come down the track and miss, allowing Dhoni to quickly whip the bails off.
It was Kumar then he got into the act by forcing Dwayne Bravo into a rash shot which was caught by Shikhar Dhawan as India kept chipping away with the wickets.
Despite late wickets India of Lendl Simmons for 62, Jason Holder for 7, and Sunil Narine for a duck, they were unable to force victory and West Indies made their target with just three balls remaining.
Earlier, West Indies captain Dwayne Bravo won the toss and elected to bowl first. The Indians made one change into their side as they brought in right-arm seamer Mohit Sharma in place of left-armer Jaydev Unadkat, while the West Indies replaced the injured Chris Gayle and Narsingh Deonarine with batsman Kieran Powell and Veerasammy Permaul respectively.
For India Virat Kohli was the star with 99 from 100 deliveries to propel India to 7/288. The 25-year-old arrived at the crease with the score on 21 for one after Ravi Rampaul dismissed the man in form, Rohit Sharma for 12, in the fifth over.
Kohli played a pivotal role in three successive partnerships that helped build a solid foundation for the hosts. He and Shikar Dhawan added 48 for the second wicket before Dhawan (35) was given out LBW to a Veerasammy Permaul delivery.
Kohli then put on 69 and 65 for the third and fourth wickets with Yuvraj Singh (28) and Suresh Raina (23) respectively.
Needing just a single to reach his 18th one-day international hundred, Kohli got duped into playing a short ball from Rampaul which he failed to control and was caught by Jason Holder at fine leg. Kohli hit nine fours in his innings.
With the situation tailor-made for him, Indian skipper MS Dhoni (51 not out), came in and did what he does best. He smashed four sixes and three fours to bring up his 50th one-day international half-century in a sensational seventh-wicket partnership with Ravichandran Ashwin (19) of 47 runs from just 19 balls.