Indian Team's Journey in 2019 Cricket World Cup...Game 6...India Vs West Indies

The 2^nd oldest cricketing venue in London the Old Trafford, Manchester   hosting its 50^th match was ready to witness Men in blue battle it out with the mighty Windies in their 6^th outing of the World Cup. The Caribbeans although featuring well below in the points tally could never be taken lightly with self-proclaimed Universal Boss-Chris Gayle in the lineup and few exciting young bowlers as well.

India came into the match with an unchanged side from the last encounter .Virat won the toss for India once again and elected to Bat first. The conditions were absolutely fabulous for Batting with bright sunshine beating on the ground. Early overs from Windies revealed that the used pitch (India played Pakistan on the same pitch) for this game offered no carry or swing.

Initially the West Indian bowlers bowled way too short although Sheldon Cottrell bowled with lot of sting .He is a nippy customer with a unique slinging action. He generates nice pace with steep bounce. Indian Openers Rohit & Rahul started the Indian innings cautiously as is the norm in this WC. India were 17 for no loss after 5 overs.

After the initial slow & steady start, Rohit started playing his shots. The first being a ferocious pull to mid wicket for six of Kemar Roch in his 3^rd over.Rahul also joined the party when he straight drove one in the same over for four.

In the 6^th over of the Indian Innings, Rohit was wrongly given out when a ball from Roch caressed his pad on the way to the Keeper. The replay showed that the ball missed the edge of the bat and took only the pad on the way to the keeper but the third umpire thought otherwise &Rohit had to walk. He made 18 of 23 balls. India 29 for 1 in 6 overs.

Virat replaced Rohit & started where he left in the last match with a crisp square cut for four of Thomas. India 47 for 1 in 10 overs. Men in Blue then collected 50 more runs in the next 10 overs without any more loss of wicket.

Rahul was cruising well when he was bowled on 48(64 Ball) by Holder to a ball which was pitched up and went through his defence.He & Virat together had an impressive partnership of 50 runs.

This brought Vijay Shankar in who immediately went down to business when he drove one through extra covers of Holder for four.

 Meanwhile Virat completed his 37^th run of his inning and broke another record when he became the fastest to reach 20,000 runs in International Cricket beating Sachin Tendulkar & Brian Lara .

India 118 for 2 in 25 overs.

Shankar couldn’t stay for long when he was out on 14(19 balls) caught behind of Roch, giving him his 2^nd wicket of the day. The ball hit the deck and nipped away taking the edge to the keeper Hope. India 126 for 3 in 27^th over.

Virat in the meantime accumulated his 4^th consecutive half century in the current WC & became the first Indian Captain to do so in WC history.

Kedar Jadhav came in after the fall of Shankar’s wicket but was sent back immediately on 7(10balls) by Roch when he nicked one to the keeper, giving Roch his 3^rd wicket. India 140 for 4 in 29^th over.

This brought Dhoni in. All the eyes were on him, after he faced lot of criticism due to the slow batting in the game against Afghanistan. He again tried a big heave of Allen when he was only on 8(15balls), missed it completely but survived as the keeper was unable to break the stumps even in two attempts. India were just not able to up the run rate  all this while & were going on a slow pace with about 4 runs per overs & wickets were tumbling way too quickly.

In the 39^th over, Kohli 72(82balls) tried to pull one from Holder which came in quick & resulted in a catch at short mid wicket.  India 180 for 5 in 39^th over.

Kohli’s dismissal brought Pandaya in and he got off the mark with a spectacular pull of Jason Holder for four to the squarish fine leg boundary. India reached 200 mark in 42^nd over.

The scoring run rate started going up, as Pandaya started playing his shots. Both he & Dhoni together added 32 runs in 5 overs since Pandaya stepped on the pitch.Pandaya 46(38 balls) was eventually caught in deep of Cottrell’s slower ball. India 250 for 6 in the penultimate over of the innings.Pandaya & Dhoni added 70 runs together.

Dhoni then completed his 72^nd ODI fifty in 59 balls & remained unbeaten in the end on 56 runs including two sixes & a four of the last over. India 268 for 7 in their stipulated quota of 50 overs.  

   

West Indies came out to chase the Indian score but Chris Gayle was tied down right from the first ball by both Shami & Bumrah.Both the Indian Bowlers bowled well within the stumps and never gave Gayle any width to free his arms. In order to successfully save the mediocre total, India needed to send Gayle back into the pavilion early. Shami, the hero of the last game against Afghanistan provided just that breakthrough when Chris Gayle tried to pull one from outside the off stump & was caught by Jadhav at Long On. So Gayle storm back into the pavilion with only 6 runs of 19 balls to his credit & WI 10 for 1 in 5 overs.

Shami again struck to claim his 2^nd wicket of the match, when he clean bowled Hope who had come in place of Gayle early on .WI 16 for 2 in 7 overs. Pandaya came in and joined the party when he LBWed newbie Ambris for 31(40) in the 18^th over.WI 71 for 3.

In the 20^th over,Kohli gave the ball to Kedar Jadhav for the first time in this WC. He although bowled just the one over as his fellow bowlers kept cleaning up the Windies wickets. At the end of 20^th over Windies were a paltry 80 for 3 with the required run rate mounting to 6.3

Kuldeep Yadav then took his only wicket of the match in the very next over when he cleaned Pooran by getting him caught by Shami on 28(50). This brought Captain Jason Holder in to the crease, meanwhile WI were 101 for 4 in 25 overs with the required RR now touching 7.

Holder didn’t stayed for long & was cleaned by Chahal for his 1^st wicket of the match. He then took his 2^nd wicket of the match as well when he claimed Cottrell’s wicket. Boom boom Bumrah then came back to bowl a magnificent over where he scalped 2 wickets( Braithwaite & Allen) in 2 balls .These were maiden wickets as well as Bumrah didn’t conceded a single run in the over.

Hetmyer tried to provide some resistance in the fag end but was claimed by Shami for 18(28),giving the bowler his 3^rd wicket of the match.Shami further exceeded his tally by adding 1 more wicket to his kitty when he got the wicket of Thomas. Thus making his tally of 4 wickets in the match.

The collapse resulted in curtains for Windies in the match as well as the tournament. They finally managed to make only 143 & lost to the formidable team India by 125 runs.

MY ANALYSIS-

1. India came into this match riding high on an unbeaten tag & the good news of becoming the ODI world no.1 ranked team. The match against the West Indies was a tricky affair as they could not afford to drop their guard against the unpredictable side like Windies.A team with exciting new ball bowlers & Chris Gayle in the side who on his day can destroy any side single handedly needed to be given their due respect.

2. And respect is what the Indian Openers-Rohit & Rahul gave them initially when Virat won the toss for them & chose to Bat first.Rohit was beginning to loosen up & start playing his shorts when a doubtful decision by the third umpire Michael Gough sent him packing. In my opinion the decision should had been in the favor of the batsman, as the TV Replay was inconclusive and the third umpire was in a hurry to give his decision of out. Wonder how on earth does the third umpire ,inspite of so much technology on hand nowadays can falter with his decision which can change the entire scenario of the match.Inspite of all the technology even if the Umpire is not sure, then the decision should go in favor of the batsman. India could barely recover from this setback during their innings, resulting in a score much less than expected.

3. The pace with which Virat is pilling on runs & breaking records after records, the day is not far off when he will end up being cut above the rest –past & present legends of the game not only of India but across the cricket playing nations of the world. And he is just 30 years of age as of now. Kudos to his fastest 20,000 Intl runs & 4^th consecutive fifty. Talking of consistency!! This is it! He is leading by example and with a leader like him team India is sure to fly higher & higher.

4.K.L.Rahul played well and has very well taken over the mantle of the 2^nd opener after the exit of Shikhar Dhwan.Although not equally flamboyant like Dhawan, but Rahul has the skill to provide a sound start to team India .In a way he is complimenting Rohit at the top of the order considering Rohit is in the purple patch of his career right now. Rahul is getting the starts ,only thing he needs to now convert them into big score & beware of throwing his wicket when he is set(as in previous matches) .He has the technique to face the new ball early on & is just what the doctor ordered for India at the opening slot. Against WI also he & virat had a valuable 50 runs partnership after early exit of Rohit Sharma.

5. Number 4 is still the weak link in the Indian lineup at present as Vijay Shankar has been unable to fill that spot .In the 3 outings till now, he too is getting the starts but is unable to carry on .There will be no surprise if Indian Think Tank feel compelled to bring in Rishabh pant in his place in the remaining league stage matches just to have a look at him before the semis sets in.

6. Kedar Jadhav failed in this match but I believe he has an ability of surprise with a unique bowling action although he has bowled just one over till now in the WC that too in this very match against the Windies.He also has a gritty 50 against Afghanistan coming in at no.6.

7.  Dhoni hit his 72^nd fifty in this match but his strike rate is way below his own standards. Dhoni again misjudged the ball & came out of his crease to hoist one of the park, missed it completely but was lucky to have survived all thanks to WI keeper. His ability to churn quick runs when needed has diminished quite a bit of late. He woke up only in the last over when he hit 2 sixes and a four to culminate the Indian Innings. In my opinion they were 20-25 runs short in the end.

8. Pandaya played his part in the team to perfection & after his arrival on the crease only the Indian run rate picked up which was hovering around 4 close to the 40 th over. He had an invaluable 70 runs partnership with Dhoni in the end & missed his own well deserved 50 by a meager 2 runs. He also contributed with a wicket of his bowling in the 2^nd half of the match.

9.Md.Shami is a changed man after his comeback. He is bowling with lot of accuracy & consistent high 140+ pace. It was heartening to see the windies batsman hopping to his pace. He picked up where he left in the last match against Afghanistan & scalped 4 more victims of his bowling against WI including the big wicket of Chris Gayle.

10 Bumrah kept the Yorkers and the pressure intact from the other end resulting in his total tally increasing by 2 more wickets.

11. Spinners “kulcha” combination bagged 3 wickets between them.

12. On the West Indian side they have a transitional team at their disposal as of now. Barring Chris Gayle, there is no experienced player in the team who can single handedly win matches for them. Gayle also is very inconsistent .He more often than not fails to deliver  when it matters most. They do have their captain Jason holder,Kemar Roch & Carlos Brathwaite in their side but they are still far from playing as a unit to win.

13. Cottrell & Hetmyer are the future prospects for the Windies, they should keep investing in them come what may. Cottrell in particular impressed me a lot with his Bowling.

14. As a whole, Indian Team played as a unit. Although the batters were about 20-25 runs short in the end, bowlers again brought the winning laurels for the team.

Great going Team India. Keep up the winning streak.

Bye for now till we meet again on Sunday 30^th June for the encounter against the home favorites England.

HAPPY READING…