Windies thump India

Dwayne Bravo played a blistering knock as West Indies beat India by seven wickets in their first Twenty20 World Cup Super Eight match at Lord’s here on Friday night.

The right-hander thumped an unbeaten 66 in 36 balls as the Windies chased down India’s 153 with eight balls to spare. Bravo hit four boundaries and three towering sixes, the last one over cover sealing the victory.

One-down bat Lendl Simmons played perfect second fiddle, scoring a 37-ball 44 that included five boundaries. His 58-run stand for the third wicket with Bravo took the game away from India. Bravo then combined with Shivnarine Chanderpaul (18 n.o) to raise an unbroken partnership of 56 runs in just 4.1 overs to see his side home.

Earlier, Yuvraj Singh celebrated his elevation to vice-captaincy with a superb knock that lifted India from the pits. The left-hander smashed 67 in 43 balls, sending six of them to the fence and two over it as India recovered from a poor 66 for 4 in 12.1 overs to score 56 runs in last five overs and post a fighting total.

Yusuf Pathan contributed a 23-ball 31 (3x4, 1x6) that provided the push at the death.

Harbhajan Singh then swung his bat around to belt 13 in 4 balls, hitting the last three balls of the innings for boundaries to contribute useful runs.

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat but Rohit Sharma wasn’t quite ready. He managed a mistimed boundary but departed early, trying to hit his Deccan Chargers teammate Fidel Edwards out of the ground. Lendl Simmons had no problem pouching the top edge at square leg.

Two more brilliant catches put the skids under the Indians. Wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin dived in front to take a low catch that spelt Suresh Raina’s doom, Edwards being the bowler again. Then, Simmons ran backwards at square to catch Gambhir’s top edge at full stretch to reduce the Blues to 29 for 3.

Captain Chris Gayle seized the momentum and brought himself on to apply the brakes – India scored just 14 runs between the sixth and 10th over, at the end of which the total read an unimpressive 54 for 3.

Dhoni dabbled along, making 11 off 23 balls before cutting ‘slow poison’ Dwayne Bravo straight to Andre Fletcher at deep point in the 13th over.

That led to a lull until Yuvraj hoicked left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn over the mid-wicket boundary in the 14th over to bring up the first big hit of the innings.

It had an infectious effect on Yusuf Pathan, who opened his shoulders to run Bravo down to the third man boundary before blasting the same bowler out of the ground as India picked up 16 off the 15th over.

Yuvraj continued to whack the ball, spanking fast bowler Jerome Taylor for 17 runs including a flicked six, in the 17th over, the most fruitful of the innings to put India on road to recovery.

India:
G. Gambhir c Simmons b Bravo 14
R. Sharma c Simmons b Edwards 5
S. Raina c Ramdin b Edwards 5
Y. Singh c and b Edwards 67
M. Dhoni c Fletcher b Bravo 11
Yusuf Pathan b Bravo 31
Irfan Pathan c Simmons b Bravo 2
H. Singh not out 13
Zaheer Khan not out 0
Extras: (lb1, w4) 5
Total (for 7 wkts, 20 overs) 153
Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Sharma), 2-27 (Yuvraj), 3-29 (Gambhir), 4-66 (Dhoni), 5-130 (Yuvraj), 6-140 (Y. Pathan), 7-141 (I. Pathan).
West Indies bowling: Taylor 4-0-44-0 (w1), Edwards 4-0-24-3 (w2), Bravo 4-0-38-4, Gayle 3-0-13-0, Pollard 2-0-7-0, Benn 3-0-26-0 (w1)

West Indies:
C. Gayle c Zaheer b Yusuf 22
A. Fletcher c Yuvraj b Irfan 0
L. Simmons c Irfan b Ojha 44
D. Bravo not out 66
S. Chanderpaul not out 18
Extras: (lb3, w3) 6
Total (for 3 wkts, 18.4 overs) 156
Fall of wickets: 1-9 (Fletcher), 2-42 (Gayle), 3-100 (Simmons).
India bowling: Zaheer 2.4-0-26-0 (w1), Irfan 2-0-9-1 (w1), Yusuf 4-0-27-1, Harbhajan 4-1-31-0, Ishant 3-0-31-0 (w1), Ojha 3-0-29-1


http://www.deccanchronicle.com