India Vs West Indies: Bowlers Help India Seal ODI Series Leading 2-0 Against West Indies!

West Indies has been historically prone to batting collapses, and in the first two matches of the 3-match one-day international (ODI) series the team without any of the famed stalwarts and without even their unfit regular captain Kieron Pollard batted true to their tradition thus conceding the Series to India as the latter has taken an unassailable 2-0 lead. In the second ODI match played today in Ahmedabad India have won comfortably by 44 runs overcoming a late charge led by the spinner duo of Akeal Hosen (34) and Fabian Allen (13), and later by pacer Odean Smith (24) who replaced Pollard with the stand-in captain being Nicholas Pooran. India Team management’s faith in pacer Prasidh Krishna over an experienced Deepak Chahar was justified for the second time as Krishna took an incredible 4-12 in 9 overs and was the Player of the Match. Rohit Sharma, the newly appointed regular ODI captain, had taken up the assignment for the first time and kept his winning record intact whenever he captained India in absence of Virat Kohli earlier.

 

India made one inevitable change bringing in KL Rahul who missed the first match due to family commitments in place of opener Ishan Kishan despite the latter not doing quite badly in the first match. It was p that resumed that Rahul was brought in as an opener. But surprise! Rishabh Pant came out to open with Rohit after being put in by the visitors! It has been utterly unpredictable as to what team management wants to do with this star player.

 

India started badly as Rohit got out early and West Indies fast bowlers, Roach and Smith, kept India in a tight leash reducing them to 43-3 in 12 overs. But then, coming at No.4 KL Rahul built a 91-run partnership with Suryakumar Yadav (64) to bring India back into the match. They were seemingly cruising when Rahul got runout in a horrible mix-up at an agonizing individual score of 49 runs. Suryakumar notched up his second ODI fifty, and Washington Sundar’s 24 and Deepak Hooda’s 29 runs helped India to a respectable total of 237/9 in the allotted 50 overs. For West Indies Roach took 4/24 in 8 overs while the spinner duo shared 4 wickets between them.

 

Shai Hope and Brandon King started well for the West Indies chase, but the tradition took over and the team got reduced to 76/5 in the 22^nd over. Thanks to the charge by the lower order the visitors reached a score of 193 all out in 50 overs. Shamarh Brooks scored the team’s highest of 44 runs in 64 balls. Compared to the West Indies spinners Indian spinner duo of Chahal and Sundar who shared 7 wickets between them in the low scoring first match was not effective today accounting for only one wicket each. Of course, part-time spinner Hooda also took a wicket. Shardul Thakur was expensive, but captured two wickets.

 

The series has been won, but the Indian batting hangover of the South Africa tour seems to have been continuing with the top order or middle order not delivering as expected. Rohit Sharma, true to his potential, scored a delightful 60 runs in the first ODI, but all other batsmen did not do well except for Suryakumar who saw through till the end of the chase. Virat Kohli failed in both the matches and still seems to be wandering in his emotional wilderness after the captaincy controversy. Of course, today he took a lovely catch in the long on boundary. KL Rahul batted tentatively and was let off by Hope in what could be called only a regulatory catch. Then, there is the opening pair issue. The recalled opener Shikhar Dhawan is out with COVID-19 infection after the South Africa tour and has reportedly fully recovered now. The question is who’d get the axe if he comes in next.

 

The expansive and beautiful Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad continues to remain empty due to the COVID protocols. All the 3 ODIs have been scheduled in Ahmedabad to limit the travel requirements of the players. The third and last ODI is scheduled on 11^thFebruary. For the same reasons all the tree matches of the T20 Series will take place in Kolkata with the first T20I on 16^th February, and the two remaining matches on 18^th and 20^th respectively. There are no test matches scheduled for this West Indies tour of India. It is also to be noted that India have won all bilateral ODI Series against the West Indies since 2007.