India snatch win, stay in final hunt: Cricketnext

New Delhi: Team India seems to be suffering from a strange irony as it has almost forgotten to play as a team. When the batsmen are on song bowlers fail to deliver and vice-versa.

On Wednesday in the match against the West Indies at the Kinrara Oval in Kuala Lumpur, the famed Indian batting line up caved in like a pack of cards to be all out for 162 in 39.3 overs. However, bowlers made sure that India’s hopes of making it to the final remained intact.

The bowlers led by the young pacers bowled out the West Indian for 146 in 41 overs to script a famous 16-run victory on Wednesday.

After winning the toss Rahul Dravid had no hesitation in opting to bat on a wicket that seemed to have eased considerably over the past week.

With no win in their last six matches, India desperately needed the big guns to come to the party but that was not to be.

Except for Sachin Tendulkar none of the batsmen showed any inclination to stay in the middle falling to an accurate but not too hostile West Indian bowling.

With such a low total to defend against a batting line up that was in top form Dravid would have been hoping that the gods or the rains come to his rescue.

But he had not taken into account the lion hearted performance that his young pace battery that also included one veteran in Ajit Agarkar was about to dish out.

West Indian run chase started even before the lunch break as Team India had failed to last the full 50 overs.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Runako Morton, who came out to open for West Indies, added 34 in nine overs before the lunch break.

West Indies lost their first wicket when Chanderpaul managed to spoon a Munaf Patel delivery to Virender Sehwag at square leg. He departed after scoring 21 off 33 balls with the Windies on 44.

Munaf struck again in his next over when he bowled a brilliant delivery that bounced a bit and cramped new man Ramnaresh Sarwan (2) who could only manage to edge the ball into the gloves of wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

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Seeing Munaf giving a tough time to the Caribbean batsmen S Sreesanth, too, decided to get into the wicket-taking act.

Morton, appearing well settled, flashed at a Sreesanth delivery but only managed to edge the ball into the slips where Dhoni took the catch after Dravid failed to take it cleanly.

And soon afterwards Ajit Agarkar trapped Marlon Samuels lbw for five to give a glimmer of hope to India. Next to go was danger man Chris Gayle (1) who was also a victim of lbw but this time the bowler was R P Singh.

Agarkar claimed his second wicket in the form of Dwayne Smith who was the third West Indian batsman to be given out lbw.

And with wickets falling at regular intervals how could the spinners remain mute spectators. Harbhajan Singh got Dwayne Bravo (10) stumped by Dhoni after deceiving him by a doosra.

Brian Lara and Wavell Hinds added 22 runs for the eight wicket before Harbhajan caught and bowled Hinds who scored just eight after playing 57 balls.

Earlier the West Indian bowlers, too, had a dream run as they bundled out India for 162.

For India the first half of the match was a nightmare and it was left to Tendulkar to provide the only bright spot in the Indian innings.

He was full of concentration even though wickets kept on falling at the other end with alarming regularity. But for his masterly 65 Team India would have folded for less than 100.

The Indian innings finally came to an end on 162 in 39.3 overs when S Sreesanth was run out going for an impossible third run.

Dravid opened the innings with Sachin Tendulkar and the fans were hoping that Tendulkar would bat like he did in the first match of the series against the Windies.

The West Indies, on a high after their win on Monday against Australia, rocked the Indians early when Dravid edged a Dwayne Smith delivery to wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh to be out for a duck.

Virender Sehwag, who came after Dravid's fall, lasted six balls for his one run before Smith bowled him.

Smith was back in the action again when he forced Suresh Raina (11) to edge a delivery that was gleefully accepted in the first slip by Chris Gayle.

The first 10 overs yielded just 38 runs for the loss of three wickets.

But Smith was not going to rest and in the 11th over of the innings he sent back Yuvraj Singh caught by Baugh. Yuvraj, too, did not bother the scorers.

With the top order back in the pavilion it was now up to Tendulkar to lead the way as the relatively inexperienced middle order may find the going tough.

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Along with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Tendulkar tried hard to put up a decent target.

However, Corey Collymore bowled Dhoni who was looking in good touch and had hit four fours for 18 runs.

Ajit Agarkar, too, was back in the pavilion soon as Dwayne Bravo bowled him for four.

At the other end Tendulkar was not perturbed by the fall of the wickets and in the company of Harbhajan Singh took India past the 100-run mark.

Harbhajan was very aggressive in the beginning hitting two sixes and a four in quick succession but soon realised that there were too many overs left settled down to play a more defensive knock.

The Little Master reached his 73rd half century off Gayle when he took a single after pushing the ball past square-leg.

Just when it was looking that Tendulkar and Harbhajan had pulled India out of trouble, Gayle had Harbhajan caught by Baugh for a well-made 37.

Tragedy struck soon after Harbhajan’s departure when R P Singh hit a Marlon Samuels delivery straight back which was deflected onto the stumps by the bowler with Tendulkar out of his ground.

The TV umpire did not take long to rule Tendulkar out and the end was near.

S Sreesanth in the only change to the team that played Australia in the previous match and he replaced out-of-form Irfan Pathan.

For the West Indies, already in the final, Corey Collymore and Runako Morton have come in place of Jerome Taylor and Ian Bradshaw.

Teams:

India: Rahul Dravid (C), Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, M S Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Rudra Pratap Singh, Munaf Patel, S Sreesanth.

West Indies: Brian Lara (C), Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Wavell Hinds, Runako Morton, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith, Carlton Baugh Jr, and Corey Collymore.

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