West Indies v India, 3rd ODI Review: Spinners Give India An Easy Win

Dec 31, 2018 at 2:03 PM

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West Indies v India, 3rd ODI Review: Spinners Give India An Easy Win

A combined effort from the spinning duo – Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav – ensured a quick wrap up to West Indies’ chasing effort and handed India a 93 runs win at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua.

After a rain delayed start – which fortunately was short and did not cost any overs – India managed only 251 for 4 in the first innings. The hosts came up with a highly disciplined bowling performance and were able to restrict the Indians from getting to a big score despite the late burst from MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav in the last 10 overs. The batting order, however, failed to complement the bowler and ended up being abysmal failures.

The chase should have been simple given the fact that there was no scoreboard pressure. But, Windies could not face off the challenge presented by India’s fast bowling duo Umesh Yadav and Hardik Pandya and later by Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav.

Opener Evin Lewis gave a poor start and was the first to depart off Yadav’s bowling, getting cleaned up good in-swinging delivery that clipped the off stump. Kyle Hope and Roston Chase took the innings further for some time with the help of the 45 runs stand between them. But, soon, disaster came calling.

Pandya snapped up Hope’s wicket to break the stand in the 13th over. An over later, chinaman Kuldeep Yadav removed Chase while Pandya came back again in the 17th over to get rid of Shai Hope and reduce Windies to just 69/4.

After this stage the entire show belonged to the spinner as Ashwin also dived in to pick some quick wickets starting with Holder whom he got stumped down the leg side.

A brief resistance was on display as Jason Mohammad and Rovman Powell delayed the winning process for India with their 54 runs for the 6th wicket. But, Yadav brought the breakthrough in the 33rd over with the wicket of Powell and soon the match was wrapped up in no time as the tail enders failed to hang around in the middle for long. Eventually, all West Indies could manage was 158 in 38.1 overs before being all out.

Earlier, the India batting performance was quite contrasting to the showing in the 2nd ODI where Indian racked up 300+ in just 43 overs. But, it eventually proved more than enough according to West Indies’ current standard.

The Men in Blue were on the backfoot today after the functional outing in the first innings. Ms Dhoni’s late blitz did boost the final score but the target was highly achievable. But West Indies needlessly threw wickets to dig their own grave.

The start was exceptional. After winning the toss, they put India to bat first and reduced India to 34/2 after 9.3 overs.

The new ball gave them good bounce at the start which was vital in both the opening breakthroughs. Dhawan was the first to fall in the 3rd over as his attempt to uppercut a rising delivery from Cummins ended in a failure with Chase pocketing a catch on the boundary ropes.

Virat Kohli was bounced out in a great sense as his unnecessary poke off a gentle Jason Holder bouncer resulted in a superb catch at the backward point region by Kyle Hope. The early damage was resurrected, however. Ajinkya Rahane and Yuvraj Singh then combined to add 66 for the 3rd wicket.

Later after the fall of Yuvraj in the 27th over, MS Dhoni walked in and carried the innings ahead with Rahane. The run rate was pretty sluggish till the 40 over mark. But, fireworks was soon witnessed as MS Dhoni along with Kedar Jadhav pressed the accelerator.

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 as Kedar Jadhav (40 from 26 balls) along iwth Dhoni added 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)

West Indies: 158 all out (Jason Mohammad 40; R Ashwin 3/28)

Man of the Match: MS Dhoni

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