West Indies 352 for 5 (Hope 162*, Jangoo 67) beat India 351 for 7 (Rahul 129*, Rohit 92, Gaikwad 57, Seales 3-62) by five wickets
That West Indies chased down 352 with remarkable ease despite losing one of only five specialist batters to injury even before Hope started to struggle leaves us with a tantalising “what if”. Not to mention a controversial decision against Sherfane Rutherford, which necessitated an excellent innings of 44 from Keemo Paul, batting in the top five for the first time in ODIs.
India needed all the skill of Rohit and Rahul and then some given how batting seemed easy once the pitch settled down. It is remarkable that West Indies won not just despite the injuries and the questionable selection, but also despite at least six dropped catches, ordinary ground fielding and the bowling going to pieces when Rahul decided it was time to maximise the last few overs.
Rahul added 40 and 61 with debutant Anshul Kamboj and No. 9 Gurnoor Brar after executing a second rebuild of the innings when Rohit and the incredibly lucky Ruturaj Gaikwad, who was dropped four times, fell within 19 runs of each other. Gaikwad’s luck took a nasty lifter from Seales to end for 57 off 69.
Rahul stayed calm, went deep into the innings, and fully cashed in on the last three overs bowled with an extra fielder in the circle thanks to a tardy over rate. He scored 42 off the last 12 balls he faced as India took 50 off the last three overs. This was Rahul’s ninth ODI hundred, fourth in just 36 innings from No. 5.
If the dropped catches were not enough, one that stuck, from Naman Dhir who looked promising in his 30 off 21, injured the opening batter Jewel Andrew so badly that he had to go to hospital for scans. No fracture was revealed, but the pain was so bad it was decided Andrew would bat only if needed. As it turned out, he wasn’t.
Dropped on 34 by Kohli no less, Jangoo scored 67 off 56 in a 109-run second-wicket stand with Hope. The pair batted with ease, hit others and milked Kuldeep Yadav for a run a ball, but a run-out off a misfield by Kohli ended Jangoo’s series at 239 runs off just 176 balls.
Just one wicket away from bowling allrounders and bowlers, having played a significant part in the run-out of Jangoo, Hope, 62 off 62 at this point, had to regroup if West Indies were to have any chance in the chase even though 202 in a little under 30 overs looked straightforward looking at how the last 60 overs had gone.
Hope responded with three fours in the next eight balls he faced. During this onslaught, India lost Brar momentarily to a calf injury. In his absence, Dhir did a decent job, but Hope kept getting the boundary whenever needed, the most notable one of them a straight back-foot six as a response to three straight dots to Dhir in the 26th over.
Rutherford joined the party soon enough but when given out on the field for 24 off 25 to make it 206 for 3 in 30 overs, the DRS review failed to convince the third umpire that the ball had not hit his bat even though replays did confirm the bat hitting the pad at the same time. The third umpire couldn’t see a “clear gap” between bat and ball needed to overturn the on-field call, but many an observer felt otherwise.
An ask of 146 in 20 overs with seven wickets in hand is a cakewalk in this era, but West Indies didn’t have Roston Chase, who was left out for Gudakesh Motie and still ended up spending half the bowling innings on the field after Vitel Lawes walked off injured.
Aided by Paul’s leg-glance-filled innings, Hope decided to take the game as deep as he could, even aware that India’s over rate was slow and that India would also need to bowl with an extra fielder in. Despite the slowdown in the intervening period once Brar came back to get the wicket of Paul, Hope made sure he was there and able to play a lone hand at the end.
The highest the asking rate got was 11.2 for the last five overs, and Hope was not getting much support from Motie at the other end. Hope had himself scored just 38 in the last 48 balls. Then he started to pull the trigger. After hitting a straight six off the first ball of Kuldeep’s last over, he achieved another small win by sweeping a wrong’un, a ball that had got him out in both the previous matches, for four.
India had to bowl the last four overs with the over-rate penalty in play, and it was their turn to go to pieces. Hope sliced a couple of fours off Brar in the 47th before Gill chose to bowl Kamboj in the 48th even though Siraj had two overs left. Kamboj looked to reprise his IPL method of going round the wicket and bowling wide yorkers to right-hand batters, but not only did he miss, he also bowled a no-ball to finally give Hope a helping hand now that he didn’t really need it.
Sidharth Monga is a senior writer at Cricinfo
