West Indies defeated India by 16 runs in the third One-Day International to keep the five-match series alive at 2-1.
West Indies captain Darren Sammy and fast bowler Ravi Rampaul praised the offspinner Sunil Narine, whose performance on debut helped his team win its first match on the tour of India. Narine took 2 for 34 in the third ODI in Ahmedabad on Monday, Dec. 5.
“It was a good fight back from the boys. The way we batted, that spell from Rampaul, (Marlon) Samuels bowled well, and the debutant Narine also. It was a team effort,” Sammy said. “Narine came here (to India])in the CLT20 and bowled in the pressure situations. He’s used to it, it’s a role he has performed for Trinidad & Tobago.”
Narine, 23, began with the new ball during the mandatory Powerplay and also bowled during the bowling and batting Powerplays. He picked up the wickets of Virat Kohli and R. Ashwin, after the No. 7 batsman had added 91 runs with Rohit Sharma to bring India back into the game.
Darren Sammy and Andre Russell featured with the bat hitting 40s towards the end while Ravi Rampaul and debutant Sunil Narine did the bulk of the damage with the ball.
Sammy and Russell as the two lower order batsmen played well against the inexperienced Indian bowlers. They hit 79 off the last 34 balls as West Indies put up a competitive total of 260. At the end, Sammy was on 41(17) while Russell too was equally impressive in his 18 ball 40. WI had smashed 93 runs off the last 7 overs.
India won the toss and fielded first for the third time at Motera. The opening bowlers contained the Windies with some disciplined bowling – West Indies had only scored 1 boundary and 4 singles off the first 6 overs. With the first change in bowling, Marlon Samuels went into gear smashing Abhimanyu Mithun, who replaced Varun Aaron for this match, for consecutive boundaries.
Danza Hyatt was then caught off the bowling of Mithun giving India a lucky break.
Windies began piling on the runs as Samuels smashed Umesh Yadav 16 runs to lift the score past 70.
R Ashwin gave India the opportunity to pick up a wicket as Bravo was left stranded mid-pitch. Bravo, who had injured himself, could not continue batting and retired hurt. Samuels continued and soon scored his 50, his 22nd in ODIs.
He was out soon after, in the final powerplay, with Ashwin by-passing his defences and uprooting the off stumps.
Dinesh Ramdin and Kieron Pollard piled on runs. Ramdin was finally out, giving Yadav his first wicket, caught by Patel for 38. Ravindra Jadeja then dismissed Pollard with a blinder at long on.
India’s start was disastrous, with both Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir falling to first ball ducks in the second over off Ravi Rampaul.
The introduction of Sunil Narine left the Indians perplexed about how to play the spinner. Soon after, Narine got his first wicket, trapping Virat Kohli in front.
Parthiv Patel scored 39 to Samuels who then sent the batsman back to the pavilion. Suresh Raina was given out caught behind by Tony Hill for 2. Ravindra Jadeja was run out thanks to Russell.
Rohit Sharma scored his 50 to leave India with an outside chance of clinching the series. The duo renewed hopes of an unlikely Indian win with some sensible batting.
Windies captain with a sharp throw caught Sharma a few feet short of the crease and 5 runs short of what would have been a fabulous century. This was after Sunil Narine struck in his last over to send back the well-set Ashwin and Vinay Kumar was bowled by Kemar Roach.
Mithun and Yadav batting last looked like they would help India to another win, but Rampaul would have none of it, trapping Mithun in front to give the visiting team a needed win.a well-deserved 16-run win.
