A special occasion calls for a special performance. For Team India, the script in their 1000th ODI couldn’t have been anything better.
Right from winning the toss, almost everything fell into place for India as they gave the West Indies a six-wicket thrashing at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday, going one up in the three-match series.
Captain Rohit Sharma, returning to the field after being ruled out with injury since the end of the T20I series versus New Zealand last November, opted to bowl first after winning the toss in his first ODI as India’s full-time limited-overs captain. On a pitch that offered fair assistance to spinners, Washington Sundar (3/30) and Yuzvendra Chahal (4/49) responded well to bowl the self-destructive Windies out for a paltry 176 with a good 37 legitimate deliveries remaining in the visitors’ innings.
Thereafter, a typical Rohit knock (60 off 51 balls) made the chase easier for the Indians, who wore black armbands and observed a minute’s silence as a mark of respect for melody queen Lata Mangeshkar (who died early on Sunday morning). In spite of a minor hiccup, the equation never got tougher for India. The steady and enterprising Suryakumar Yadav (34 not out) and debutant Deepak Hooda (26 not out) batted sensibly.
Team India players wear black armbands as a mark of respect for the late Lata Mangeshkar on Sunday. Twitter
The duo’s unbroken 62-run stand for the fifth wicket that came in only 10.3 overs took India home with as many as 22 overs to spare.
That said, in terms of batting, the Indian team management may still need to sort out certain issues as from 84/0 in the 14th over, they slipped to 116/4 halfway through the 18th over. This only underlines how crucial Rohit’s innings at the top was.
After unleashing some delightful strokes, skipper Rohit got a pretty good delivery from Alzarri Joseph that nipped back a bit to trap him lbw, while an unlucky run-out dismissal cut short Rishabh Pant’s stay at the crease. But the dismissals of former captain Virat Kohli and the other opener Ishan Kishan may worry head coach Rahul Dravid a little bit as both of them fell to the trap that had been set.
Spin duo’s dominance
In his India comeback, after missing the ODI leg of the South Africa tour due to Covid-19, off-spinner Washington bowled the right line and length from his very first over. Also helped by the Windies batsmen’s lack of application, he struck twice in the 12th over, dismissing opener Brandon King and Darren Bravo that pushed the visitors back as they were looking to stitch together a partnership.
Soon after, seasoned leg-spinner Chahal rocked the Windies when he trapped Nicholas Pooran lbw and then foxed Kieron Pollard with a googly in the very next ball that castled the Windies captain. The shot from Pollard too was atrocious to say the least.
Washington, preferred over Kuldeep Yadav, and Chahal extracted pretty good turn off the wicket and kept targeting the stumps, while Rohit too exercised wisdom when it came to utilising the DRS, which went in favour of the two spinners on all three occasions India reviewed.
Lost opportunity
For the Windies, the resilience put up by Jason Holder (57) and Fabian Allen (29) went in vain. The visitors were tottering at 79/7 at one stage, before Holder and Allen stitched a fine 78-run stand for the eighth wicket. But insipid showing with the bat early on had left both of them with too much to do.
Also, when India lost those four quick wickets, captain Pollard should have had more fielders in catching positions that could have added more pressure on Suryakumar and newcomer Hooda.
