West Indies v India, 3rd ODI Mid Innings Report: Dhoni's Late Burst Ensures A Respectable Total 1
Ajinkya Rahane (Photo Source: ESPNcricinfo)

Indians were mostly sluggish with their batting approach today in the third ODI against hosts West Indies at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua. After a rain delayed start – which fortunately was short and did not cost any overs – India looked in completely out of rhythm and mustered only 251 for 4 in the first innings.

The kind of start India had today clearly hinted that there would be no display of the bumper show similar to the 2nd ODI where Indian racked up 300+ in just 43 overs and the hosts came nowhere near to that performance.

Windies pacers looked exceptional today with the new ball, extracting good bounce off at the start. Dhawan was the first to fall in the 3rd over. His attempt to uppercut a rising delivery from Cummins ended in a failure as Chase got hold of it on the boundary ropes.

Shortly, India was handed another setback in the form of Virat Kohli who was forced to walk off with a ‘stunned’ expression in his face. Kyle Hope, standing at the backward-point region, put in an athletic effort to make Kohli pay for the unnecessary poke off a gentle Jason Holder bouncer.

The scoreboard read 34/2 after 9.3 overs. It was a rare sight.  Quite strangely, there was no counter attack as well to break free. Rahane looked in his natural zone while Yuvi also decided to play It safe rather than throw away his wicket.

The pair added 66 for the 3rd wicket before the fall of Yuvi, who despite the start gave his wicket to Devendra Bishoo in the 27th over. With run rate around four an over, Dhoni’s arrival looked very positive. He initially stayed away from rash shots and relied more on accumulating the runs.  But, once the 40th over mark was reached, he showed his real avatar.

India was at just 151/3 with Dhoni batting on 29 from 52 balls and Rahane on 65 from 105 balls. An over later Rahane lost his wicket but that did not cause any difference to the fact that Dhoni along with contributions from Kedar Jadhav (40 from 26 balls) was ready to add 100 runs in the last 10 overs to take the final total to 251/4.

Brief Scores:

India: 251/4 (MS Dhoni 78; Miguel Cummins 2/56)

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