Indian team has partially made their way to the semi-final stage after yet another disciplined all-round performance: this time against the defending champions. They are the team to beat in this world cup after back to back 7-wicket victories.
There were many notable moments which had its viewers at the edge of their seats in an otherwise one sided match.
Great Display of Swing bowling: – The 1st over of the West Indies inning brought back the memories of Dale Steyn bowling and convincingly beating Rohit Sharma. This time the bowler was Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and the batsman was Dwayne Smith. Kumar bowled perfect out swingers and beating the batsman on couple of occasions. He bowled five out swingers in a row and gave India the strong momentum.
Keeping the run rate below 6, in the power play, against a West Indies side comprising hard hitters was a great achievement and Kumar was successful in it.
Gayle storm faded away: – As Chris Gayle took strike before the last ball of Kumar, the crowd began cheering. The big man was dropped by Ashwin in the slips in the 2nd over, bowled by Shami. Gayle struck a magnificent six and classy four to extract 11 runs from the 4th over. Gayle storm had begun.
MS Dhoni then brought in form Amit Mishra into the attack but he was clobbered for a six by none other than Gayle in the very first ball. The next ball was, shockingly, dropped by Yuvraj Singh. But the storm then faded away as no more boundaries were scored from the bat of Chris Gayle as he settled for ones.
Ultimately he was shown the door in the worst possible manner- a run-out.
Mishra’s Magic: – Amit Mishra is having an awesome time in Bangladesh as he bagged, deservingly, 2 back to back Man of the match awards. Mishra picked up the crucial wickets of Samuels and Bravo in consecutive balls to leave the West Indies reeling at 74/4.
He did beat the batsmen on a no. of occasions and it was amazing to watch.
Misses and drops: – Fielding is becoming more and more miserable for team India. First it was Ashwin who dropped a crucial catch of Chris Gayle in the slips. Then it was Yuvraj Singh who dropped a sitter. Really the old Yuvi is missing from the side.
Mohammad Shami also messed up at the boundary lines and gave an uncertain boundary.
Even in the Indian innings, Santokie misjudged the ball and allowed a boundary.
Non-stop Virat Kohli: – Virat Kohli again looked sublime in his innings chasing a paltry target. He never looked in any problem and hit the occasional boundaries. He never allowed pressure to mount up as he always looked for singles and couples every ball- which was missing from the West Indies innings.
The bowlers also helped Virat in making runs as they regularly bowled leg side deliveries, especially Santokie.
A bad day for Yuvi: – Yuvraj Singh had a bad day at the office as he dropped an easy high catch and wasted the opportunity of hitting the winning runs. He failed to score a run in the 1st two balls of the last over and was unfortunately dismissed as Gayle grabbed a sharp catch.