India vs West Indies: ICC Champions Trophy 2013 - Report

Shikhar Dhawan smashed his second ODI century as India completed a comprehensive eight-wicket win with 65 balls to spare against the West Indies in a group B match of the ICC Champions Trophy at The Oval here on Tuesday.

In Group B, Pakistan are out of the tournament. The June 14 fixture between South Africa and the West Indies in Cardiff, will decide the second semifinalist from the group. South Africa and West Indies have won a game each.

Earlier in the day, an unchanged Indian side inserted the West Indies in to bat and removed the dangerous Chris Gayle but couldn’t make further dents early on in the WI line-up as Johnson Charles and Darren Bravo garnered runs. The pair added 78 until Ravindra Jadeja trapped the opener leg before for 60.

The left-arm spinner who has become the Dhoni’s go to man in recent times did not disappoint when handed the ball. He then followed up with the wicket of Marlon Samuels to bring India back into the game. Although the on field umpire didn’t find the batsman out, the DRS found the batsman out giving India a much needed breakthrough.

In Jadeja’s next over Ramnaresh Sarwan perished nicking the delivery where Dhoni collected the ball going down the leg side behind the stumps. Slowed down, the pair of Bravo’s – Darren and Dwayne added 31 in about nine overs before Darren while coming down the track to Ravichandran Ashwin was stumped by Dhoni.

Wickets then fell in a cluster and the WI were in danger of being bowled out before finishing their quota of overs. The WI skipper taking the aerial route was caught by Jadeja just inside the ropes. Kieron Pollard was the next to be sent back. The big-hitting batsman holed out Ishant Sharma to long on in an attempt to clear the boundary while Kumar took a good catch to remove the danger man.

Eight runs later, Jadeja bowling his second over after being reintroduced into the attack, dismissed Sunil Narine and then castled Ravi Rampaul as his fifth scalp.  

Darren Sammy played a swashbuckling cameo to take his team across the 200-run mark. After damaging Ishant Sharma’s figures by clobbering the pacer for 21 runs in the penultimate over, he claimed 14 off Jadeja in the last over. Back in the side in place of Denesh Ramdin, Sammy remained unbeaten on 56 off 35 with five boundaries and four sixes while taking his team to 233.

Chasing two more points to strengthen their position in the points table, the Indian openers put up their consecutive century partnership with Rohit Sharma reaching his half-century en route to 101-run stand. Although Sammy created a few half chances to dismiss the openers, the duo batted superbly to set up a strong platform for their team. It was not until the 16^th over that WI got their first wicket with the DRS coming to their rescue to send back the elegant right hand batsman for 52.

Even as India were within sniffing distance of the target and ahead of the required runs under the D/L method, the drizzle turned to heavier showers and halted play. But, without losing any overs and India needing 30 runs with eight wickets in hand Dhawan and Karthik came to the crease when play resumed after a short interruption.

While India was coasting to the target, the opener was inching towards his second successive ODI century and Karthik towards his half-century. After the south-paw crossed the three-figure mark with a six and had brought India within two runs of victory he played through the rest of the over to give his partner the strike and an opportunity to bring up a well deserved half-century. On the first ball of the next over, Karthik smashed a boundary over the covers off Pollard to take his team across the line and remained unbeaten on 51 while Dhawan was not out on 102.   

India now take on arch rivals Pakistan in their last game in the league phase.

Brief scores: West Indies 233/9 in 50 overs (J Charles 60, D Sammy 56*, R Jadeja 5/36, B Kumar 1/32) lost to India236/2 in 39.1 overs (S Dhawan 102*, R Sharma 52, D Karthik 51*, S Narine 2/49) by eight wickets

Man of the Match: Ravindra Jadeja for his game-changing spell to shift the match India’s favour.

Presentation:

Dwayne Bravo: "Not enough runs, after the start we got, we deserved to have got 40-50 runs more, having said that, the Indians bowled well, had their plans and stuck to it. Congratulations to Sammy for coming back into the team and performing. We need to work on working the ball around, our strike-rates as middle-order batsmen. Definitely we bowled too wide, fast outfield, gotta give credit to the Indian batters, we still have a good chance to qualify. Sunil is our key bowler but not enough runs, he bowled very well, my aim was to make sure he bowled out. The next match is like a final itself, we know it is not going to be an easy game, but we know we have the talent to do it."

MS Dhoni: "Overall a very good performance, WI got to a very good start, they seemed like they would get 280 runs or so, our bowlers did very well after that, our bowlers were able to keep the batsmen at their respective ends, didn't let them rotate easily. You think I know him (Jadeja) well, but even I'm finding out over a period of time. I think the execution was not really there (at the death). We'd been happy with 230 at the outset. I think the young batsmen have accepted the challenge, Dhawan did well in the Tests, Rohit took up the challenge of opening the batting, also it helps that we have changed into a very good fielding side. (crowd cheers when asked about Pakistan game) I don't think Indian team has every played a dead game, I think it is also important in areas where we want to improve."

Man of the Match is Ravindra Jadeja: "I was just trying to bowl in the right areas, I played here against England and took two wickets, I'm just trying to give my good performance. I was just bowling wicket-to-wicket and letting the pitch do the rest."

source: bcci.tv

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India vs West Indies: ICC Champions Trophy 2013 - Statistical HighlightsDhoni has Backed me all the time: Ravindra JadejaImages: India v West Indies - ICC Champions Trophy 2013