By Our Sports Affairs Bureau
VISAKHAPATNAM: Before leaving for Cuttack’s Barabati Stadium in Odisha on Thursday, team India got a huge a relief Wednesday with Rohit Sharma , KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav taking the battle against the visiting West Indies to draw the series level.
India 387 for 5 (Rohit 159, Rahul 102, Iyer 53, Pant 39) beat West Indies 280 (Hope 78, Pooran 75, Shami 3-39, Kuldeep 3-52) by 107 runs.
For the second time in a must-win game during West Indies’ tour of India, the home batsmen stood up to post a well-above-par total. Often, during the last four-five years, the batsmen could have been accused of conservative batting, leaving the bowlers seemingly impressive but ultimately subpar totals to defend. Not in Mumbai in the T20I decider, not in Visakhapatnam when asked to bat to keep the ODI series alive.
What they got was a glimpse of what their outrageously talented batting unit can achieve when they go all out to give their under-pressure bowling a total to defend in the dew. Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul scored hundreds in a 37-over partnership, and Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer followed up by unleashing mayhem in the last 10 overs.
West Indies were hoping for a slowdown to carry some momentum into the chase, but they also had two of India’s strongest power hitters to contend with. Pant played havoc with West Indies’ bowler of the tour, Sheldon Cottrell.
His two sixes over the off side – his less-favoured flank – off Joseph made Cottrell go straight but with similar results. A 24-run over from Cottrell brought Chase on, whom Iyer hit for four sixes and a four. At 217, this was the third-highest toll India had taken of the last 20 overs in an ODI innings.That’s when Shami happened.
In his second over back, he bowled the perfect bouncer to Pooran, wide enough for him to have to drag his pull. That the top edge still nearly carried for a six showed the importance of the line. Kuldeep didn’t drop it this time. A full ball first ball made Pollard the second captain to register a golden duck on the day.
West Indies now began to swing their bats, and Kuldeep was clever enough to register his second ODI hat-trick to kill the game off.
