Dominant India aim for 2-0 lead at Vizag

Visakhapatnam: India will look to extend their lead and hope to test out a new-looking middle-order in the second ODI at  Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam on Wednesday.

India's dominate of the Windies in the first ODI in Guwahati, where an unbeaten 152 by Rohit Sharma, a 140 by captain Virat Kohli and a 246-run partnership between the two made light work of the 323-run target that the Windies had set and offered another reminder of the strength of the Indian top order.

This was even as India were without three of their front-line bowlers -- Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah were rested from the first two games, and Kuldeep Yadav sat out.

It came after a century from the 21-year-old Shimron Hetmyer, a blazing 106 off just 78 balls with six fours and as many sixes, had taken the visitors to a daunting total of 322/8 before another 21-year-old, Oshane Thomas, on debut, bowled Shikhar Dhawan for four to reduce India to 10/1.

While Sharma played second-fiddle in the first half of the run chase when Kohli pressed the foot against the accelerator and was scoring at more than a run a ball, once the captain was dismissed with the score 256/2.

The find of the Asia Cup for India, left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed, also had a hot-and-cold kind of day in Guwahati, giving away 64 for a wicket from 10 overs. Yuzvendra Chahal was the pick of the bowlers with his 3/41 while Ravindra Jadeja returned two wickets as well.

And while these batting performances were the highlights for the Windies, as was Hetmyer's attacking approach against the spinners in the middle overs, the bowling, much like India's, didn't have much to show.

Roach was taken for 52 off seven overs while Thomas had a less-than-perfect debut as he was taken for 83 off his nine. Spinners Ashley Nurse and Devendra Bishoo were expensive too. Only captain Jason Holder (45 off eight overs) was able to restrict the scoring.

Teams from

India: Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Rishabh Pant, MS Dhoni (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Syed Khaleel Ahmed

West Indies: Jason Holder (c), Fabian Allen, Sunil Ambris, Devendra Bishoo, Chanderpaul Hemraj, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope (wk), Alzarri Joseph, Kieran Powell, Ashley Nurse, Keemo Paul, Rovman Powell, Kemar Roach, Marlon Samuels, Oshane Thomas, Obed McCoy

Pitch and conditions
It is expected to be hot and sunny in Vizag on Wednesday and there's a 30 per cent chance of rain as well. The surface can be expected to be good for batting.

Stats and trivia

• Virat Kohli needs one more hundred to set the record for most ODI hundreds against the Windies; he currently has 5 hundreds -- which is the joint-most against the Windies along with Herschelle Gibbs, AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla.
• Kohli needs 30 runs to complete 4,000 runs in ODIs at home and needs 81 runs to get to 10,000 runs in ODIs. He also needs 47 runs to surpass Sachin Tendulkar's aggregate (1,573) and become India's highest run-getter in ODIs against the Windies.
• Ravindra Jadeja needs 38 runs to get to the 2,000 ODI runs milestone.
• Kieran Powell needs 48 runs to get to the 1,000 ODI runs milestone.

Match facts
Wednesday, 24 October 2018
Start time: 13:30 local (08:00 GMT)