India blew away West Indies by 125 runs at Old Trafford in Manchester on Thursday. With this win, India remain the only unbeaten team in the World Cup. They have almost ensured their place in the semi-finals, sitting comfortably at second spot with 11 points from six matches. West Indies, whose hopes of finishing in the top four places had already been up in smoke, have succumbed to their fifth loss in seven matches and are stuck near the bottom of the table with 3 points.
India blew away West Indies by 125 runs at Old Trafford in Manchester on Thursday. With this win, India remain the only unbeaten team in the World Cup. They have almost ensured their place in the semi-finals, sitting comfortably at second spot with 11 points from six matches. West Indies, whose hopes of finishing in the top four places had already been up in smoke, have succumbed to their fifth loss in seven matches and are stuck near the bottom of the table with 3 points.
Toss: India won the toss and elected to bat first. All three matches that had been played at this venue prior to this match had been won by the team batting first. The fourth also went the similar way on Thursday.
First Innings: A patient knock by skipper Virat Kohli and a late cameo by MS Dhoni in the death overs guided India to a fighting 268/7 in their 50 overs. Kohli scored 72 off 82 balls while Dhoni remained unbeaten on 56. KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya also chipped in with scores of 48 and 46 respectively as India survived another middle-order collapse. For West Indies, Kemar Roach finished with figures of 3/36.
Second Innings: The West Indies innings was a tale of collapses, punctuated by partnerships. Mohammed Shami reduced them to 16/2 early on, scalping Chris Gayle (6) and Shai Hope (5). Nicholas Pooran and Sunil Ambris then steadied the innings. Hardik Pandya triggered another mini-collapse by scalping Sunil Ambris (31). The Caribbean side then lost Nicholas Pooran (28) to Kuldeep Yadav and Jason Holder (6) to Yuzvendra Chahal in quick succession. Jasprit Bumrah then took wickets off consecutive balls as West Indies suddenly found themselves looking down the barrel.
Gamechanger: The last 10 overs of the India innings were the most productive passage of play in the whole match. In a match where most batsmen found scoring difficult, MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya tore into the Windies bowling in this period, bringing up 82 runs in these overs. India’s total was thus taken to 268/7 at the end of the 50 overs when it had seemed at one point that they would struggle to reach 250.
Captains Speak
Jason Holder: Thought the bowlers did a fantastic job on this surface. Just let ourselves down with the bat. In hindsight, Dhoni’s (stumping) miss was a crucial moment we didn’t seize. Let ourselves down significantly in this tournament. Missed a few chances in the field which cost us. Batting was too inconsistent. Can’t fault the bowlers. Need to improve. Probably our weakest format, this. Kemar Roach was outstanding today.
Virat Kohli: We just became the No. 1 ODI team yesterday as far as rankings are concerned, but to be honest we are playing that way for a while, need to continue that way. Things haven’t gone our way with the bat in the last two games, but we have still done well to win, that’s being the most pleasing thing. Last game, we didn’t calculate well, we lost two quick wickets, but today we improved, Hardik played really well and MS finished strongly. When those two play in that way, we always get to a good total. To get to 270 was good, that put pressure on their batting and was very difficult to chase. I don’t need to tell anything to my batsmen, they have to adjust according to their strengths and weaknesses and play according to the pitch.
Brief Scores: IND 268/7 (50 overs) | WI 143 all out (34.2 overs)
Toss: India won the toss and elected to bat first. All three matches that had been played at this venue prior to this match had been won by the team batting first. The fourth also went the similar way on Thursday.
First Innings: A patient knock by skipper Virat Kohli and a late cameo by MS Dhoni in the death overs guided India to a fighting 268/7 in their 50 overs. Kohli scored 72 off 82 balls while Dhoni remained unbeaten on 56. KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya also chipped in with scores of 48 and 46 respectively as India survived another middle-order collapse. For West Indies, Kemar Roach finished with figures of 3/36.
Second Innings: The West Indies innings was a tale of collapses, punctuated by partnerships. Mohammed Shami reduced them to 16/2 early on, scalping Chris Gayle (6) and Shai Hope (5). Nicholas Pooran and Sunil Ambris then steadied the innings. Hardik Pandya triggered another mini-collapse by scalping Sunil Ambris (31). The Caribbean side then lost Nicholas Pooran (28) to Kuldeep Yadav and Jason Holder (6) to Yuzvendra Chahal in quick succession. Jasprit Bumrah then took wickets off consecutive balls as West Indies suddenly found themselves looking down the barrel.
Gamechanger: The last 10 overs of the India innings were the most productive passage of play in the whole match. In a match where most batsmen found scoring difficult, MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya tore into the Windies bowling in this period, bringing up 82 runs in these overs. India’s total was thus taken to 268/7 at the end of the 50 overs when it had seemed at one point that they would struggle to reach 250.
Captains Speak
Jason Holder: Thought the bowlers did a fantastic job on this surface. Just let ourselves down with the bat. In hindsight, Dhoni’s (stumping) miss was a crucial moment we didn’t seize. Let ourselves down significantly in this tournament. Missed a few chances in the field which cost us. Batting was too inconsistent. Can’t fault the bowlers. Need to improve. Probably our weakest format, this. Kemar Roach was outstanding today.
Virat Kohli: We just became the No. 1 ODI team yesterday as far as rankings are concerned, but to be honest we are playing that way for a while, need to continue that way. Things haven’t gone our way with the bat in the last two games, but we have still done well to win, that’s being the most pleasing thing. Last game, we didn’t calculate well, we lost two quick wickets, but today we improved, Hardik played really well and MS finished strongly. When those two play in that way, we always get to a good total. To get to 270 was good, that put pressure on their batting and was very difficult to chase. I don’t need to tell anything to my batsmen, they have to adjust according to their strengths and weaknesses and play according to the pitch.
Brief Scores: IND 268/7 (50 overs) | WI 143 all out (34.2 overs)