ICC World Cup 2019: Match 34, Windies vs India, Review – Rampant Indians register another easy win

Virat Kohli and India will now have to believe this is their best chance to win the World Cup. With the tracks turning slow and the Men in Blue having great quality in their spin department, they have to consider it a golden opportunity to go all the way. This performance against the Windies was a perfect example of what we could expect in the business end of the tournament.

Kohli won the toss earlier and India decided to bat first. Rohit Sharma was given out quite early under controversial circumstances after he scored a few quick boundaries. KL Rahul and Virat Kohli negotiated brilliantly after the first wicket and kept the scorecard ticking at a good rate. Yet, Rahul once again threw away a good chance to score big, getting dismissed for 48.

Vijay Shankar got a couple of good boundaries against Jason Holder but fell for an absolute peach against Kemar Roach. Kedar Jadhav too couldn’t get going and gifted Roach his third wicket of the game. MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli’s partnership provided no respite as the scoring rate dipped during this period, but they were clear with their plans.

Kohli fell agonizingly after completing his half-century and the burden was left on Hardik Pandya and MS Dhoni to take them through the final 10 overs. Pandya did a great job with MSD holding the other end as they had no accomplished batsmen after them. The duo managed to register 80 runs off the final 10 overs which included a blazing finish from Dhoni in the final over.

They finished with 268 runs for the loss of seven wickets with MS Dhoni finishing unbeaten on 56 off 61 balls. Pandya’s 38-ball 46 provided great momentum in the final overs for the Indians. Roach picked up three wickets giving away just 36 runs in his 10 overs whilst Holder and Cottrell picked up two wickets each.

Walk in the park for the Indian bowlers

Chris Gayle was struggling to cope with Shami and Bumrah and he eventually was dismissed by a good short delivery from the former as it hurried him a bit. The fast bowler soon picked up his second wicket by knocking off Shai Hope’s stumps with a brilliant in-swinger. Sunil Ambris and Nicholas Pooran batted for some time to give some hope for the side, but it wasn’t enough.

Once Sunil Ambris’ fighting innings came to an end in the 18th over with the scorecard reading 71/3, the Windies batsmen queued up back to the pavilion one after the other. Jason Holder fell after being deceived by a brilliant tossed up delivery from Chahal. Bumrah came back into the attack to dismiss Brathwaite and Fabian Allen off consecutive deliveries and the rest was a mere formality for the Indians.

Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane Thomas and Kemar Roach threw themselves at the tossed up deliveries from the spinners to garner some runs, but that had no impact on the final result as India registered an emphatic 125-run win.

Brief Scores

India: 268/7 in 50 overs (Virat Kohli 72, MS Dhoni 56*, KL Rahul 48, Hardik Pandya 46; Kemar Roach 3/36)

Windies: 143 all out in 34.2 overs (Sunil Ambris 31; Mohammed Shami 4/16, Jasprit Bumrah 2/9, Yuzvendra Chahal 2/39)

Result: India won by 125 runs

Man of the match: Virat Kohli