India and the West Indies are now in a tie following the defeat of the West Indies during the second one-day match of the five-match series by 48 runs.
India scored a modest 263 runs for 7 wickets in their innings off 50 overs. Suresh Raina 62 from 60 balls, Virat Kohli 62 from 78 balls and Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni 51 not out from 40 balls. For the West Indies, Jerome Taylor picked up 3 wickets for 54 runs from 10 overs. Dwayne Bravo, Darren Sammy, Ravi Rampaul and Sulieman Benn all took one wicket each.
BATTING ORDER IS ESSENTIAL
West Indies, after winning the first one-day game by 124 runs, changed its batting order by making two changes. Captain Dwayne Bravo was placed lower in the order after opening the batting in the first match while Kieron Pollard was put to bat in number three position.
POLLARD AT NUMBER THREE
After the West Indies reached a reasonable opening start with Darren Bravo and Dwayne Smith, the next batsman should have been the inform Marlon Samuels. This decision affected the team. Why is Kieran Pollard batting at number three? This is not Twenty20 cricket and too many times bad decisions have caused West Indies to lose games.
At that point in the match, the West Indies team was not in a rush for runs so sending Pollard at that time was unnecessary. The West Indies team was bowled out for 215 runs after 46.3 overs. Opener Smith scored 97 runs from 97 balls. Mohammed Shami bowled very impressively picking up 4 wickets for 36 runs from 9.3 overs. He was named man of the match. Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja picked up 3 for 44 from 9 overs. Note: The third one-day game was called off because of bad weather; the fourth one-day will be played on Oct. 17.
MARLON SAMUEL SCORES A BLISTERING TON
West Indies started off their five one-day series against India with a bang winning by 124 runs. Jamaica and West Indies star batsman Marlon Samuel’s swash-buckled 126 runs from 116 balls with 11 fours and 4 sixes. Denesh Ramdin scored 61 runs from 59 balls giving excellent support to Samuel’s and to the team. West Indies scored 321 runs for six wickets and bowled out team India for 197 runs. For India, opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan scored 68 from 92 balls and middle order batsman Ravindra Jadeja scored 33 not out.
WEST INDIES BOWLERS PERFORMED WELL
Ravi Rampaul bowled 8 overs and picked up 2 wickets for 48 runs, captain Dwayne Bravo picked up two all-rounder Marlon Samuel’s 2 wickets for 10 runs from 3 overs. West Indies played some excellent cricket and the selection panel chose a good final 11 with all around abilities. Lendl Simmons, the opener, is out sick and on his return, Sulieman Benn will have to sit out. Simmons will strengthen the West Indies batting and fielding because he is an outstanding fielder and catcher.
DWAYNE SMITH MUST ADJUST HIS BATTING
Too many times hard-hitting batsman Dwayne Smith has given his wicket away in one-day cricket. Smith is a well-known Twenty20 specialist but he will have to adjust in the one-day games. Smith will play a crucial role for the West Indies in this one-day series and it is important that he applies some cricket knowledge with some slight adjustment and maintain some time at the crease. There is a big difference in batting in a 20-over game and batting for 50 overs. The 20-over game is more about shot selection and taking less risks. Smith has been around for a long while and he should be able to play more intelligently.
The entire West Indies squad must learn from their errors and come on stronger and better. Denesh Ramdin is in fine form in the middle order and that is good for the West Indies but the top order will have to perform well and set the platform. West Indies chances are good but team India plays well at home and they are good at coming from behind.
