India beat West Indies in thriller, go 2-1 up

India clinched a thrilling encounter against the West Indies in the third of the four game ODI series at Gros Islet in St. Lucia to go 2-1 up in the series, thanks to an unbeaten 46 by the skipper M.S.Dhoni. The final game of the series will be played on Sunday at the same ground.

The match began a couple of hours late due to persistent rains and the resulting damp outfield, but even when it began, there were frequent interruptions. The game was reduced to 41 overs to begin with, which changed to 39, 36 and soon 27 overs! Dhoni won the toss and decided to field first on a damp wicket, but his counterpart Chris Gayle’s start to the game almost snatched it away from the Indians.
Gayle started with a couple of fours off Ishant Sharma and hit another four in his 14-ball 27, before the first ball after another of those frustrating breaks had him edge an Ashish Nehra delivery to the ‘keeper.

Runako Morton had been West Indies’ hero in the last couple of games, but he failed to get going, and it was left to Ramnaresh Sarwan to do the repair job. Sarwan did hit a six off Yuvraj Singh – to go with his five boundaries – but he relied more on the slow outfield to get going with his quick running en route his half century. After a half century stand with Morton, there was no real big stand, but Sarwan and the rest kept chipping away, and this was followed by some great end-overs hitting by Darren Bravo and Dinesh Ramdin to propel the score up to 186/7 in 27 overs. India’s target according to the Duckworth-Lewis system was 194 in the 27 overs.

Sarwan played a well-compiled inning of 62, but was again run-out while going for a badly misjudged second run.

India, in reply started off well, with Gautam Gambhir and Dinesh Karthik getting a good start each. Gambhir did struggle in the beginning with his lack of form and foot movement, but Karthik was at his smashing best as he got to 47 off only 43 balls as the first wicket added 84 in 12 overs before Karthik was run-out.

There was another rain interruption soon after, and reduced the target to 159 in 22 overs, which meant that 64 runs were needed off 51 balls. With the duo of Gambhir and M.S.Dhoni looking good enough, the target did not look too distant, but the wicket of the left-handed opener did change the equation in the hosts’ favour.

Yuvraj Singh has been the man in form, but he could not get going and was caught at long-on by Bravo, and when Rohit Sharma departed, India still needed 11 runs off seven deliveries.

Ravi Rampaul had delivered a good enough 20th over, but Gayle went for the more experienced Jerome Taylor to deliver the last over. The last over saw India need 11 runs, which changed to 10 off five deliveries, but then Dhoni hit a six to bring it back within India’s grasp. A brace and a single each followed, as India won the game with only one delivery to spare.

Dhoni was the obvious choice for the man-of-the-match for his game-turning inning.