After surviving a scare against Afghanistan, it was a regular day in the office for Team India against West Indies in Manchester on Thursday. Virat Kohli and Co beat the Windies convincingly by 125 runs.
After struggling with the bat, it was a cakewalk for the Indian side when they came out to bowl. Despite having a deep batting line-up, West Indies couldn’t play their full quota of 50 overs as they were bowled out for 143 in 34.2 overs.
With this loss West Indies are out of the semi-final race while India are still unbeaten in the competition and are one win away from a spot in the semis.
Here’s a look at the five important moments from the match:
Virat Kohli’s 72
After Rohit Sharma went early for the second match in a row, Virat Kohli again steadied the ship for India, along with KL Rahul. He shared a 69-run stand with Rahul for the second wicket.
For the fourth successive time in the competition, Virat Kohli scored a half-century. But unfortunately, he couldn’t convert it into a century as he fell for 72 off 82 balls in the 39th over to his Windies counterpart Jason Holder
By the time Kohli was dismissed, India had added 180 runs on the board and Kohli had eight boundaries to his name
On Thursday, Kohli also became the fastest batsman to complete 20,000 runs in international cricket in 417th match, surpassing legends Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara.
Hardik Pandya’s Quickfire 46
When Hardik Pandya came to the crease after Kohli’s dismissal, India were going less than 5 runs an over.
MS Dhoni was finding it difficult to hit the big shots. But Hardik Pandya had no such problems. He started connecting from the word go. As Dhoni struggled with his strike rate, Hardik was striking at more than hundred.
Hardik had hit five boundaries en route his 38-ball 46.
By the time Hardik got dismissed, the duo had put up a 70-run stand and India had reached the 250-mark.
Dhoni’s Last Over Surge
Dhoni struggled with the bat for the most part of his 91-ball innings against West Indies.He was again guilty of playing too many dot balls. He was neither able to rotate strike nor accelerate his innings.
But the final of the innings saw the real Dhoni – Dhoni: The finisher.
He clubbed the first ball of the 50th over for a six over mid-off. After refusing to take single off the next two deliveries off Kemar Roach, Dhoni hit the fourth ball for a boundary towards long-on. With this four he brought up his fifty. After another dot ball, it was a typical Dhoni finish as he put the final delivery in the stands for another six.
Dhoni finished with 56 off 61 deliveries while India ended with 268 in 50 overs.
Shami’s First Spell
The way Mohammad Shami is bowling it looks like India will be in a fix once Bhuvneshwar Kumar is declared fit.
Continuing his good run with the ball, Shami again picked up four wickets on Thursday. But it was his first spell which caused the maximum damage.
His first victim was Chris Gayle in the 5th over of the innings. The West Indian opener was cramped for pace and bounce as he mishit a back of the length delivery to Kedar Jadhav at mid-on.
In his next over, Shami dismissed Shai Hope with a peach of a delivery to reduce Windies to 16/2. It was a beauty of a delivery that nipped back to deviate and dismantle the stumps.
Shami came back to take two wickets in the end to complete the formalities as he gave away only 16 runs.
Bumrah’s Double Strike
After Shami gave India the perfect start with the ball, Bumrah just confirmed the fate of the match with his double strike in the 27th over.
In his first spell, Bumrah was effective in suffocating the Windies batsmen but couldn’t take any wickets. It was only when he was brought back by his captain, Bumrah struck gold.
In the 27th over, he first dismissed Windies’ tragic hero from the last match – Carlos Brathwaite for 1 as Dhoni took a one-handed stunner diving to his right.Off the very next delivery, he trapped Fabian Allen LBW. The batsmen went for a review but didn’t have any success.
Bumrah finished the match with magical figures of two for nine in his six overs.
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