Hope rises for Windies as Kohli’s ton goes in vain
Samuels chokes India in latter half of chase as the Caribbeans pull one back to level series 1-1 at Pune
India skipper Virat Kohli’s 38th ODI ton went in vain as a disciplined West Indies came back strongly to win the third One-day International by 43 runs at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium here yesterday.
Chasing a healthy 284, India looked on course with Kohli belting an excellent 107 off 119 balls, his third consecutive century of the series, and opener Shikhar Dhawan scoring 35 before a middle order collapse, coupled with some disciplined bowling bundled the hosts out for 240 in 47.4 overs.
For the Windies, veteran all-rounder Marlon Samuels turned out to be wrecker-inchief, with his off-spinners, returning figures of 3/12 while skipper Jason Holder, Obed McCoy and Ashley Nurse picked two wickets each.
Earlier, the tourists rode stumper Shai Hope’s 113-ball 95 and a valuable 22-ball 40 from Nurse, lower down the order to put 283/9 at the end of their 50 overs. For India, pacer Jasprit Bumrah scalped four wickets in his comeback match.
Poor start
Put into bat, the West Indies were off to a poor start as Jasprit Bumrah struck twice to dismiss openers Kieran Powell (21) Chandrapaul Hemraj (15) within the first nine overs with the scorecard reading 38/2.
Hope, who had come after the fall of Powell, was joined by Marlon Samuels, who too, fell cheaply after scoring just nine runs.
Shimron Hetmyer and Hope then added 56 runs for the fourth wicket, taking West Indies past the 100-run mark. Just when the partnership looked settling, Hetmyer, while trying to go big, missed the ball before Mahendra Singh Dhoni made no mistake in dislodging his bails, leaving the visitors reeling at 111/4.
Kuldeep Yadav, who dismissed Hetmyer, also got the better off incoming batsman Rovman Powell, who could manage to contribute with just nine runs as the visitors were left at 121/5.
Skipper Jason Holder was then involved in a crucial 76-run partnership with Hope before Bhuvneshwar Kumar struck to pack back the former on an individual score of 31.
The visitors, who were at 197/6, then lost Fabian Allen (5) and Hope. However, Ashley Nurse chipped in with a valuable 40 runs down the order before becoming a victim of Bumrah as the West Indies reached 283 runs in 50 overs.