India complete dominating 59-run win over West Indies in 4th ODI; Kohli, Samuels hammer tons

Mumbai, Oct 18: A disinterested West Indies team went down to India by 59 runs in the fourth One-Day International (ODI) at Dharamsala. The match lacked the desired intensity from the visitors amidst concerns that the tour has been called off. The Indians though put up a solid performance led by Virat Kohli’s 127 scoring 330.

West Indies hardly showed any intention of chasing the challenging total. After hanging around for a while, Dwayne Smith departed for a 11-ball duck. Kieron Pollard walked in at No 3 only to nudge around and allow the required rate to creep up. On some other day, the team chasing would’ve gone for some calculated risks at least. While Pollard was going for a few unorthodox shots to no success, Darren Bravo was content shouldering his arms to anything outside off. By the time Pollard was caught in the slips, he had already consumed 31 deliveries. In other words a match-losing innings looking at the target. Smith and Pollard together had scored six off 42 deliveries which shows that the Windies were crippled right at the start of the chase.

It was with the arrival of Marlon Samuels that things got going as he hit a few cracking boundaries and brought some life back in to the game. Darren Bravo scored steadily until he was bowled by Akshar Patel for 40.

Denesh Ramdin and Samuels were the ideal candidates to add some momentum to the innings. however, they were stifled by Ravindra Jadeja and Patel. Samuels however, took a liking for Jadeja soon as he hammered him for a few big ones. But Ramdin perished after a laboured 21-ball nine. One brought two as Dwayne Bravo too was dismissed in the same over.

However, Darren Sammy and Samuels showed some fight to find the fence at regular intervals. But the required rate was getting beyond West Indies’ reach hovering between 10 and 11 an over. With the lower order filled with big hitters, Jadeja and Mohammed Shami bore the brunt as they leaked runs. However, it was Patel who emerged impressive conceding only 26 in his 10 overs during this time and picked the wickets of Sammy and Darren Bravo. Andre Russell produced an entertaining cameo of 46 from 23 balls. All through the middle overs, the Windies batsmen played some big hits but not consistently enough to keep up to the required rate.

Marlon Samuels held the innings together and got to his seventh ODI ton, second of this series. The unfortunate news of the cancelled series took the sheen off the match.

The news of the cancellation of the tour came in the middle of the Indian innings, but there were ominous signs of things going wrong. In hindsight the decision had already been taken when the entire team turned up at the toss as a mark of support. West Indies won the toss and inserted India in to bat. The pacers Jerome Taylor and Jason Holder made a disciplined start but things started drifting away soon. Indian openers, Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane capitalised on frequent loose deliveries. After a cautious start, India had raced up to 65. Dhawan who was struggling, too got going with a flurry of boundaries.

The West Indies put up a combined display of lethargy as sitters were dropped, overthrows followed and the Indian batsmen accumulated runs and confidence. Both Dhawan and Rahane fell trying to play an adventurous shot. While Dhawan was caught for 35, Rahane was given a reprieve while batting on 38 and went on to score another 30.

Following Rahane’s dismissal, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina, accumulated quick singles and twos before unleashing their ruthless side lofting the ball and tormenting the bowlers. It was a quality innings from Kohli who kept his patience and looked persevered to get a big one. once he got in to his groove, the runs started flowing like old times and galloped to his 20th ODI ton.

Brief scores:

India 330 for 6 in 50 overs (Virat Kohli 127, Suresh Raina 71, Ajinkya Rahane 68; Suleiman Benn 1 for 30) beat West Indies 271 in 48.1 overs (Marlon Samuels 112, Andre Russell 46, Darren Bravo 40; Akshar Patel 2 for 26) by 59 runs.

Man of the Match: Virat Kohli.