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New Delhi: India got all their prayers answered as Virat Kohli returned to form in the team's series-equalising 48-run win against the West Indies in the second game of the five ODI series at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium on Saturday.
Chasing 264, West Indies were coasting. Dwayne Smith had gone past his highest ODI score, and his second-wicket partnership with Kieron Pollard was assuming threatening proportions. With nine wickets in hand, a long list of batsmen waiting in the dressing room, and 128 required at exactly a run a ball, this was West Indies' match to lose. They went and lost it.
It started with the wicket of Pollard, who chased a wide ball and dragged Amit Mishra onto his stumps. From that point, West Indies imploded. On a two-paced Feroz Shah Kotla pitch on which batsmen found it hard to score quickly unless they had got their eye in, India's bowlers put the brakes on the scoring, and panic took hold of the batsmen. West Indies lost their last nine wickets for 79 runs, and their last eight for 45
Earlier, playing in front of his home fans, Virat Kohli (62 off 78 balls) at last put his poor run with the bat behind as he combined with Suresh Raina (62 off 60 balls) for a fourth-wicket 105-run stand, helping India to 263 for 7.
Having failed in England - both in ODIs and Tests - and in the first ODI of the series in Kochi, Kohli had begun facing the heat from a demanding Indian public. A failure at the Kotla would have made the situation even worse but he finally managed to see light at the end of the tunnel.
Raina, Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja (6) departed in the space of 40 runs as the hosts lost the momentum a bit but MS Dhoni (51 off 41 balls, 5x4s, 1x6s) stayed till the end, ensuring the good work from Kohli and Raina didn't go up in flames.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar (18) played a crucial hand in his seventh-wicket 29-run stand with Dhoni. The India captain hit Taylor for a six and a four in the last over to complete his 56th fifty. India made 71 runs in the last 10 overs for the loss of three wickets. Taylor finished as the best West Indies bowler with figures of 3 for 54.
India's start to the game wasn't ideal after Dhoni decided to bat first. Shikhar Dhawan (1) got a peach of a delivery from Taylor as the ball moved in after pitching and uprooted the left-hander's offstump. Ajinkya Rahane (12) went in a soft manner, giving Bravo a simple catch at cover off Darren Sammy while attempting a drive.
Ambati Rayudu batted solidly for his 32 but pushed hard at a spinning-away Sulieman Benn delivery bringing Sammy into play at slip.
Earlier, India have won the toss and have opted to bat.
India have one change -- Umesh Yadav in for injured Mohit Sharma, while West Indies unchanged.
Teams:
India: Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (Capt. & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Amit Mishra, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav
West Indies: Dwayne Smith, Dwayne Bravo (Capt.), Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell, Darren Sammy, Sulieman Benn, Ravi Rampaul, Jerome Taylor
Brief scores
India - 263/7 (Raina 62, Kohli 62, Dhoni 51*, Taylor 3-54)
West Indies - 215 (Smith 97, Shami 4-36, Jadeja 3-44)
Result - India won by 48 runs
