India Beat West Indies In One-off T20I At Port-Of-Spain
In the end, it was a stroll for the Indian side in their first game on the tour of the West Indies. The margin would have been much more than 16 runs had it not been for the fireworks in the end by Christopher Barnwell but the one-off T20I at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain was probably won by the tourists when they set a target of 160 for a West Indian win.
It was a difficult pitch, to say the least. The ball refused to come on to the bat and India, put into bat by Darren Sammy were pegged back by the captain. Sammy scalped four early wickets as India stuttered to 56 for four at the end of the ninth over.
With the spinners getting vicious turn as well and India in possession of at least four of those in their arsenal, a target of 120 would have been testing on the track. As it turned out, it was the partnership between S Badrinath and Rohit Sharma that set the foundation for something even more.
Badrinath made 43 while Sharma score 26 – both being accorded reprieves at different times. Badrinath was dismissed off a no-ball while Sharma was dropped early by Ashley Nurse. Later, Yusuf Pathan and Harbhajan Singh, both hit unbeaten 15 – off six and seven balls respectively – to propel India to 159.
West Indies lost a couple of early wickets and despite a 66-run third wicket stand between Darren Bravo (41) and Marlon Samuels (27), the runs took far too long to come. The poor running between the wickets only accentuated the issue associated with chasing an asking-rate of more than eight per over through most part of the innings.
And when Harbhajan got the better of both these batsmen in the same over, the asking rate had jumped to more than 16 per over. Barnwell smashed an unbeaten 16-ball 34 but the knock came a couple of overs too late.
There were two points to ponder about from the West Indian perspective.
One, it is a no-brainer that the Indian side is the best player of spin bowling, apart from possessing some world-class spinners. Then, to prepare tracks like these is nothing short of playing into the opponents’ hands.
Secondly, it will work to the team’s advantage if the likes of Chris Gayle and Kieron Pollard can e brought into the side and quickly. The Gayle-WICB war will have no winners but rest assured, there will be one loser – the West Indian cricket, as it was today, when they missed the Jamaican’s hard-hitting capabilities.
