Ahmedabad, Dec 5: West Indies have registered the first win of their India tour by winning the third ODI of the five-match series here at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium. After Rohit Sharma’s feisty innings of 95 threatened to pull off an impossible win for India, the visitors managed to restrict the hosts to 16 short of the 261-run target.
If the West Indies total looked competitive, it was largely thanks to some power hitting by Darren Sammy and Andre Russell at the end of their innings. Before their arrival, the Indian bowlers were looking good to restrict the visitors to about 220 in 50 overs.
After India won the toss and elected to bowl, R Vinay Kumar struck in just the third over of the day to get rid of Lendl Simmons (1). Danza Hyatt, coming in place of Adrian Barath, struggled to 20 off 39 deliveries before Abhimanyu Mithun got him to edge a delivery to Parthiv Patel down the leg side.
Darren Bravo was hampered by a hamstring injury during the course of his innings and was eventually forced to retire hurt (26) with the visitors’ score on 97 for two in 26 overs. Marlon Samuels (58 off 93) and Denesh Ramdin (38 off 52) then played a couple of solid knocks to ensure that the West Indies innings did not implode like in the second ODI at Vizag. The dangerous Kieron Pollard also chipped in with a 32-ball 29. Pollard’s innings came to an end thanks to an outstanding catch by Ravindra Jadeja in the deep; covering the distance from long off to the deep extra cover boundary, Jadeja’s stupendous catch gave Vinay Kumar his second wicket of the day. At 181 for five in 44.2 overs, a sub par chase appeared to be in the offing for the Indians.
Russell and Sammy, however, had other plans. The two batsmen plundered 73 runs off the last five overs, which included 43 off the last two alone. Russell was unbeaten with 40 off 18 deliveries while Sammy scored 41* from just 17 balls as West Indies ended their innings on 260 for five.
The Indian top order floundered once again in the chase. Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir notched up a pair of golden ducks as Ravi Rampaul struck twice in consecutive deliveries to give his side the early advantage. Virat Kohli (20) was a bit unlucky as umpire Sudhir Asnani ruled him out lbw to give offspinner Sunil Narine his first international wicket. 43 for three would soon deteriorate to 84 for five as Parthiv Patel (39 off 35) and Suresh Raina (2) were felled by Samuels and Rampaul respectively. Ravindra Jadeja (11) would be the next Indian wicket to fall when he was run out while attempting an impossible single. India were a hopeless 105 for six in 20.5 overs at this stage.
But like in the first ODI at Cuttack, Rohit Sharma managed to revive the Indian innings. The Indian middle-order batsman struck his third consecutive half-century that occasionally saw him stepping down the wicket and lofting the bowlers to the boundary. Sharma, who was dropped by Darren Sammy on 33, added 91 for the seventh wicket with R Ashwin (31) in 19.1 overs.
The visitors, however, made a comeback when Sunil Narine had Ashwin (31) trapped lbw; Indian were on 196 for seven at the completion of the 40th over. Kemar Roach knocked Vinay Kumar (3) over nine deliveries later to improve the visitors’ chances of winning the game.
But the real clincher for the visitors was a direct hit from Darren Sammy that claimed Rohit Sharma on 95. Abhimanyu Mithun and Umesh Yadav (11* off 10) kept the many fans at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium on their toes with some lusty blows but Ravi Rampaul eventually trapped Mithun (23 off 16) lbw off a yorker length delivery.
With the West Indies having won this game, the series is still alive with India leading 2-1. The action now shifts to the Holkar cricket stadium in Indore where the fourth ODI will be played on December 8, 2011.
Brief scores: West Indies 260/5 in 50.0 overs (Marlon Samuels 58, Darren Sammy 41*, R Vinay Kumar 2/39) beat India 244 all out in 46.5 overs (Rohit Sharma 95, Parthiv Patel 39, Ravi Rampaul 4/57) by 16 runs
Man-of-the-match: Ravi Rampaul for incisive bowling figures of 8.5-1-57-4 that included two top order wickets
