Rahane ton puts India in control of rain-delayed tie
Finally there was play in the second one-dayer between the West Indies and India as dark clouds, hovering over the sea on one side and the mountain on the other, stayed away from the Queen’s Park Oval thanks to little or no breeze.
And despite there being rain early on, which wiped out oneand-a-half hours of play here, reducing the game to 43 overs a side, the Indian openers kept their focus to notch up another century stand. India were 254/3 in 38 overs at the time of going to print.
Both Shikhar Dhawan and his new partner Ajinkya Rahane, who replaced Rohit Sharma in the squad, got their second successive 100-run partnership as India got off to a brilliant start, notching 114 for the first wicket in just 18.2 overs.
This follows the 132 they put on during Friday’s game that was abandoned due to rain.
The West Indian pacers looked clueless, caught between two extreme lengths.
If they leaked runs through overpitched deliveries, they overcompensated it with short deliveries that were dispatched with equal ease to the boundary line.
RAHANE TAKES CHARGE
Rahane began the charge, picking a boundary and a six off Alzarri Joseph’s first two overs. Once Dhawan got a whiff of juicy length, Rahane happily rotated the strike, allowing his senior partner to bat aggressively.
The home seemed clueless as none, save Ashley Nurse, made any impression.
These sort of attacks are easy meat for India, especially the top three, who like to take their own sweet time to build a platform.
Rahane completed his 3rd ODI century in the 34th over though he was dismissed soon after while trying to increase the run rate.
Rahane, who shared 96 runs for the second wicket with his skipper Virat Kohli, tried to pull a ball too close to his body but missed the line and was bowled by Miguel Cummins.
Interestingly, Kohli promoted Hardik Pandya up the order ahead of Yuvraj Singh, who is struggling, and former captain MS Dhoni. The move, it seems, was meant to ease pressure off the senior pros.