ICCWorld Twenty20: Windies bundle out India

MUMBAI: Without a contribution from Chris Gayle, running high on the blades of Lendl Simmons, J Charles and Andre Russell preying comprehensively on all Indian bowlers, West Indies achieved the improbable — they bundled out India from the World Cup to reach Kolkata for the Final against England.

As efforts go, this one was superlative. It came from a corner, on a big score, without the main West Indian weapon, in front of a very Indian crowd and with a confident knock from the lesser sung heroes of the Caribbean team.

West Indies flowered on the fire power of solid partnerships, confident and aggressive knocks and an absolutely scintillating show by Andrew Russell and Lendl Simmons who was in the tournament for the first time as a replacement to the hamstrung Fletcher. But he showed no rust or jetlag whatsoever with the bat and carried his team to the Final on his high knock of an unbeaten 83 in some 50 odd balls.

At no time in the West Indies innings were India on top, except when a low lying full toss got Chris Gayle into the dressing room in Jaspreet Bumrah's first ball off his first over. Even though Nehra took out Marlon Samuels to a sloppy shot soon afterwards and West Indies were 19/2, it was all downhill for the hosts all through.

The West Indies 100 came in 11.2 overs with just two wickets gone with Indian bowlers of all hues at the receiving end, returning nightmarish run averages. Not Ashwin, not Jadeja, not Bumrah and not even Nehra could do much to break the solid partnership between Simmons and Charles. With the ball coming on to the bat easily, by the 12th over Dhoni and his men were in a fix about how to break the dangerous and aggressive twosome.

Such was the show put up by the two that the early picking of Chris Gayle (6) looked wasted.

From 19/2 in the 4th over to 116/3 in the 14th over, it was a West Indies-all-the-way show which silenced the Indian crowd for a long time before Dhoni threw the ball to Kohli and the partnership was broken in the very first ball. But by then Simmons had done the damage with his 50 runs in 35 balls with 5 boundaries and 4 sixes.

The sixes kept raining with Andre Russell going into 6th gear almost immediately picking on a harried Pandya with the big six and a boundary in just four balls. Pandya closed his four over spell giving away 43 runs before he almost scalped Russell in his last ball but was discovered to have stepped over the line for a free hit! At this juncture West Indies had scored 62 runs in 31 balls. The free hit, by the way, went for a huge six and all was going high for the Caribbeans and this was the second near-dismissal on a no-ball, the early one being by Ashwin.

 Nehra was brought back in the 17th over in the hope of sending back a scalp but nine off him was a lightless tunnel for the Men in Blue. Nothing was going India's way all through with Bumrah bowling three dot balls in the next over and then almost getting Simmons but the catch was adjudged a six and was followed up with a boundary and two runs!

From 36 runs in 15 balls to 20 in 12, the great Windies sweep of the nation had become more surefooted than ever with Dhoni and the rest looking nonplussed. From a sound position of 192/2 in the first innings to that yet again pressure cooker situation, India for once was losing it most comprehensively, that too a Gayle-less West Indies.

In the end, it was West Indies all the way as the last over was left with only 8 runs to make and India being thrown out of the World Cup, that too by the Simmons who would be the least popular Mumbai Indians guy in Mumbai at the moment. It was for all to see that Dhoni was now relying on pure luck as he threw the ball to Kohli for a last over — only this time even Kohli could not save the moment.

India were out, squarely beaten by an unlikely team of superb fighters - Lendl at 83 not out and Man of the Match and Russell at 41, hitting a magnificent closing six to end India's misery with two balls spared. 

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 1 April, 2016