Twitter Reactions: Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu's centuries help India gain an unassailable lead

Khaleel Ahmed continued to impress with the ball as he picked three wickets.

By Aditya Gajanan Kukalyekar verified

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Team India
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Team India. (Photo Source: Twitter)

India thumped the Windies by 224 runs in the all-important fourth One-Day International at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. They’ve taken an unassailable lead of 2-1 in the series now and have ensured that they won’t lose the series. The visitors though were disappointing on the day as they were left clueless by Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu.

After opting to bat first, Rohit and Shikhar Dhawan set the hosts off to a blazing start. The latter looked good to score big today but smashed the short ball from Keemo Paul straight to the mid-wicket fielder. Virat Kohli, on the other hand, failed surprisingly and was sent back by Kemar Roach for 16. This was also his lowest ODI score in 2018. Meanwhile, Rohit had got set and was looking to build the innings post the fall of a couple of wickets.

Rayudu joined him even as the opposition bowled good lines and always kept it wide from the batsmen. Slowly but surely, they increased the run-scoring and whenever there were a lot of consecutive dot balls, one of them used to play a big shot to ease the nerves. With a similar approach, Rohit Sharma got to his 21st century and then opened his arms.

After the 30-over mark, runs started to flow from both the ends as the duo added 211 runs for the third wicket and didn’t let the team miss their captain. Rohit especially shifted the gears amazingly in the death overs and just when it felt that he will notch up yet another double century, Ashley Nurse got better of him while on 162. Soon after his dismissal, Rayudu brought up his third ODI ton to celebrate his comeback and also cemented his position in the top four for the World Cup.

MS Dhoni‘s late fireworks (23 off 15) along with Kedar Jadhav propelled Team India to 377 runs for the loss of five wickets after 50 overs.

Windies in disarray in the chase

The run-chase was never going to be easy for the Windies. After a decent start, the pressure told on them and the batsmen in the middle were involved in a couple of needless run-outs as well. While Kuldeep Yadav first managed a direct-hit to send back Shai Hope for a second-ball duck, Kieran Powell was the next one to go thanks to Virat Kohli for his brilliance.

At 21/3, things looked bleak for the Carribean side and clearly, even they had left the hopes of a victory it seemed. Shimron Hetmyer tried to play a few flamboyant strokes but the middle-order derailed by Khaleel Ahmed who swung the ball drastically. The wickets kept on falling at the regular intervals despite the skipper Jason Holder fighting out a lost battle at the other end.

Eventually, Windies were bundled out for 153 runs in the 37th over of the chase as India registered a thumping win by 224 runs in the fourth ODI. Not surprisingly, Rohit Sharma was awarded the Man of the Match for his trailblazing knock at his home ground.

Here’s how Twitter reacted during the match:

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