Mirpur : India, riding on another inspiring show by the spinners, notched up their second straight win in ICC World Twenty20 beating defending champions, the West Indies, in a Group 2 match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium here Sunday.
It was a clinical performance by the Indian team after skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni opted to bowl first. The spinners first restricted West Indies to 129 for seven in 20 overs and then Rohit Sharma struck an unbeaten 62 and Virat Kohli 54 as India achieved the target of 130, losing three wickets and with two balls to spare.
India lost opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan early to leggie Samuel Badree in the very first over but Rohit and Kohli took away the match from the West Indies with their 106-run stand for the second wicket.
While Rohit held up one end, Kohli went after the West Indies bowling spanking the bowlers to all parts of the ground. His 41-ball knock was studded with four fours and a six. With a victory in sight, Kohli was played down by a delivery from Andre Russell.
Yuvraj Singh (10) lasted 19 deliveries before being caught at the slips by Chris Gayle off Marlon Samuels but Rohit and Suresh Raina (1 not out) took the team home safely without further loss. Rohit hit five fours and two sixes in his 55-ball innings.
Earlier, the trio of Ravindra Jadeja (3/48), Amit Mishra (2/18) and Ravichandran Ashwin (1/24) did well to tie down the West Indies big hitters. Chris Gayle was the top scorer with 34 while Lendl Simmons made 27.
Mishra picked up his second Man of the Match award and was most miserly of the lot giving away just 18 runs in his four overs while Jadeja got some stick from Simmons but had the last laugh as he not only dismissed the batsmen but also picked up crucial wickets of Darren Sammy (11) and Russell (7).
Put in, the West Indies batsmen made a slow start scoring five runs from the first three overs and couldn’t recover from it. Pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar was exceptional upfront and his first spell read 3-0-3-0.
Gayle tried to break the shackles hitting one four and two sixes in his 33-ball innings. He would have been back early in the innings had Yuvraj Singh not dropped a sitter off Mishra when the southpaw was on 19. Gayle was finally run out by a fine piece of fielding from Mohammad Shami.
Samuels (18) was foxed by a classical leg spinner’s delivery from Mishra to be beaten in flight and Dhoni whipped off the bails.
Simmons tried to increase the run rate with his 22-ball 27 hitting one four and a six but was dismissed by Jadeja with Shikhar Dhawan fumbling to take the catch at backward point.
Team players for both team :
West Indies Team : CH Gayle, DR Smith, MN Samuels, LMP Simmons, DJ Bravo, D Ramdin, DJG Sammy, Andre Russell, SP Narine, S Badree, Krishmar Santokie
India Team : RG Sharma, S Dhawan, V Kohli, SK Raina, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, RA Jadeja, R Ashwin, B Kumar, Shami Ahmed, A Mishra