A great spirited bowling display by West Indies helped them to beat India by 11 runs in the fourth ODI match at Sir Vivan Richards Stadium, Antigua last night.
The Indian bowlers were brilliant with the ball restricting West Indies to just 189 for 9 but early wickets and slow batting did not help India’s cause as the Men in Blue were bowled out for 178.
West Indies captain Jason Holder won the toss and elected to bat at Antigua. The Indian team made three changes as Dinesh Karthik, Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja was included in the squad. Kyle Hope and Evin Lewis struggled against the new ball bowlers of Shami and Yadav. At the end of 10 overs, West Indies were 31 for 0. After the powerplay overs, both batsmen continue to play the Indian bowlers with caution. Hardik Pandya took the wicket of Kyle Hope ending a 57 runs partnership for the first wicket in 17.2 overs.
Evin Lewis and Shai Hope added 23 runs for the second wicket before Lewis was dismissed for 35. The third wicket partnership of Roston Chase and Shai Hope played slowly adding 41 runs in 10 overs. Kuldeep Yadav dismissed Chase for 24 while Hope was dismissed by Hardik Pandya 25.
After that none of West Indies batsmen was able to score big runs. It was another poor display of batting by the hosts as they were not able to convert starts into huge scores. The hosts posted a modest total of 189 for 9 in 50 overs. Umesh Yadav and Hardik Pandya took 3 wickets each while, Kuldeep Yadav continued his excellent form taking 2 wickets.
Chasing the target of 190, the Indian team got off to a worse start losing the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan for 5 runs. Virat Kohli also was dismissed cheaply by Holder for 3. Rahane looked in great touch again. At the end of first 10 overs, India was 33 for 2. After the powerplay overs, the opener made the batting look easy with great stroke play. Dinesh Karthik who was playing his first match in the series was dismissed for 2.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rahane steadied the innings with a slow partnership of 54 for the fourth wicket. Rahane completed his half century in 72 balls and was dismissed for 60 runs. Kedar Jadhav failed with the bat as he scored just 10 runs. Hardik Pandya came to the crease and hit 20 off 21 balls. MS Dhoni completed his fifty in 108 balls. With 19 runs required in the last 3 overs, Jadeja was dismissed. MS Dhoni trying to hit a big shot was caught on the boundary for 54. West Indies bowled India for 178 in 49.4 overs.
West Indies 189 for 9 in 50 overs ( Evin Lewis 35, Kyle Hope 35, Umesh Yadav 3/36, Hardik Pandya 3/40) beat India 178 in 49.4 overs ( Rahane 60, MS Dhoni 54, Jason Holder 5/27) by 11 runs
Jason Holder was named the man of match.
With this win, West Indies keep the series alive at 1-2. The 5th match of the series will be played at Sabina Park, Jamaica on 6th July.
