Seamers inspire a comprehensive win for Windies by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Ground:	Sabina Park, Kingston
Scorecard:	West Indies v India
Player:	R Rampaul, CH Gayle, MS Dhoni
Event:	India in West Indies 2009

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DateLine: 28th June 2009

 

The West Indian pace trio of Taylor, Rampaul and Bravo rocked the Indian batting line up and had it not been for Dhoni’s patient and responsible knock India would have been in a far more embarrassing position. After 21.4 overs India was struggling at 82 for 8, but a 101-run ninth-wicket stand between Dhoni and RP Singh took India to respectability. Jerome Taylor drew the first blood when he bowled the perfect outswinger to Dinesh Karthik, and succeeded in getting the edge through to the keeper. In the second over, Rampaul removed Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma for ducks and in 1.4 overs the Indian scorecard read an embarrassing 7 for 3.

 

Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni shared a partnership of 47 in 62 deliveries. Yuvraj got into his stride quickly and he found the boundaries to inject some momentum back in the innings. But Taylor got rid off Yuvraj before he could do serious damage to the psyche of West Indian bowlers. Yusuf Pathan edged an accurate bouncer from Dwayne Bravo to the slips and Ravindra Jadeja poked at a delivery away from his body. Harbhajan Singh and Praveen Kumar didn't show any appreciation of the fact that there were close to 30 overs still to go, played flashy shots, and soon India were 82 for 8. Dhoni farmed the strike and even refused singles to RP.

 

Dhoni’s innings was like the one that Rahul Dravid used to play for India, full of determination. RP Singh was happy to watch from the other end and his first run came off the 13th ball he faced. By the time RP got out for a career-best 23, the two had put together a century ninth-wicket stand for only the fifth time in ODI history. Dhoni was the last to go, to a perfect slower from Taylor in the 49th over.

 

The West Indian batsmen began the innings off in a positive manner as they began to dispatch an increasingly wayward bowling attack for runs. Gayle looked dangerous as he punished the bowlers at will. Ashish Nehra faced his wrath in the eighth over when he clobbered the left-handed pacer out of the park and followed it up with a couple of boundaries to amass 16 runs in the over. With that over the West Indian batsmen seized whatever momentum was there with India away from them.

 

Off the two openers Gayle was in particularly aggressive mood as he simply waded into the listless bowling attack. He finally dismissed when Gambhir took a superb catch but by then the West Indian team was well ahead of the run rate. Ramnaresh Sarwan then added 15 runs before being deceived by Rohit Sharma as Dhoni completed an easy stumping. However, Morton batted without any problems as he along with Shivnarine Chanderpaul chased down the target.