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May 20, 2006 (Click to see the Scorecard)

West Indies pulled off an incredible 1-run win at the Sabina Park in Kingston, Jamaica as India were bowled out for 197 chasing a moderate target of 198. The scenes at the Sabina Park were extremely dramatic as Yuvraj Singh batting on 93 failed to read the yorker length delivery from Bravo and looked to flick it along with the angle for a single and got cleaned up. Yuvraj couldn’t believe it and West Indies with that finished off one of the most exciting One Day Internationals ever played in the history of the game. The Indian players in the dressing room were jumping in joy thinking that Yuvraj had connected his flick shot and they were shocked when they saw Dwayne Bravo and the West Indies’ fielders starting to celebrate in a wild fashion. Twelve runs were required of the last over of the match and Bravo started off with a wide and then got edged to the 3rd man region unintentionally for a lucky boundary from Yuvraj. The next ball saw a stunning cover drive from Yuvraj under pressure which sped away to the fence like a tracer bullet and that shot silenced the crowd in the stands. The next ball saw Bravo pulling a rabbit out of the hat helping West Indies defending just the 1 run successfully.

The target set by the homeside was no way going to be enough for this formidable Indian team but they not only made a match out of it but also ended up victorious. India started off decently until they lost Sehwag who got out slashing a drive on the up off Bradshaw. Bradshaw was on song as he got the ball to hold onto the surface and also started to get some extra bounce which accounted for the Indian Captain’s dismissal. Once Dravid was out poking at an away swinger from Bradshaw, West Indies started to smell a sniff of a chance of getting back into this match. Irfan Pathan and Mohammad Kaif through their reckless shots got West Indies on top in the match to leave India at a precarious position at 60 for 4. Raina, then joined Yuvraj and the two did reasonably well to steady the ship for India. However, Suresh Raina was finding it tough to pierce the gaps and he threw his wicket away under pressure by attempting a desperate lofted shot off Marlon Samuels. Infact most part of this 5th wicket partnership saw the combination of Gayle and Samuels bowling their part time off breaks. After Raina’s fall, Dhoni came in and went back to the pavilion after chopping one onto the stumps off a short ball from Taylor to open the floodgates once again in this match. Bradshaw who did the damage early on came back for another spell to put Windies on top by taking a tumbling catch to to dismiss Agarkar to reduce India to 134 for 7. Down and out were India and Powar rallied along with Yuvraj for a while to get India back in the game. Powar fell looking to hit a big shot and India slipped to 177 for 8. Gayle like Bradshaw took a marvelous return catch to dismiss Harbhajan and that meant Yuvraj was left with the no. 11 Munaf Patel to take India home which he failed to do so after having done 99% of the work. The pick of the bowlers has to be Ian Bradshaw who took 3 for 33 in his 10 overs and he was the one who gave the opening for Windies to make a match out of this. Gayle and Samuels went for little over 30 runs in their quota of 10 overs and they played a crucial role in getting the required run rate to rocket for the Indians. West Indies did have a few run outs and stumpings missed but their overall ground fielding improved to a large extent to bog down the Indian batsmen.

It was a prompt start to the match this morning as the weather was bright and sunny and Rahul Dravid after winning the toss chose to field first. Ramesh Powar, the birthday boy had come in place of RP Singh and West Indies retained the same eleven that lost the 1st ODI. This time around, the Indian opening bowlers started off beautifully and with their late movement wrecked the Windies batting order. Agarkar shared the new ball this time with Pathan and both of them got rid of the openers to have West Indies tottering at 1 for 2! Lara came in at no.4 and scratched around for a while and although he was dropped in the slips by Raina, he did not progress much further and threw his wicket away without a fight. West Indies were soon 43 for 4 after Chanderpaul played an uppish cut shot straight to Kaif of Harbhajan Singh’s bowling. Marlon Samuels then walked in and gave good company for Sarwan to give some respectability to the West Indies’ total. Sarwan had to bat till the end as he had a horrifying start to his innings scoring 9 from 45 balls at one stage. But the right hander had the guts to battle out there in the middle and slowly he got his timing right and started to get the momentum going for the West Indies. Carlton Baugh did chip in with a cameo scoring a 17-ball 21 and his innings was also instrumental in West Indies closing at 198 for 9 in the allotted 50 overs. Sarwan was unlucky not to get to a well deserved century as he was stranded at the non striker’s end in the last over of the innings and Taylor getting out in the 5th ball of the final over meant that Sarwan was left on 98 not out. Nevertheless it was a fighting knock from the Guyanese and he got credited in the end with the Man of the Match award.

So Kingston, Jamaica has seen the 5-ODIs Series leveled at 1-1 and now its over to St.Kitts for the 3rd ODI and that’s after a couple of days break. India are struggling to stroke free on these slow tracks but they still hold the edge over the West Indies because of their resources. West Indies will look for their captain to fire and for once score a big one against India.

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