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In complete contrast to their innings of 339 in the first one-day international at Jamaica, the Indian batting mystery machine produced a poor display as they capitulated to 188 all out getting hammered by the West Indies by 8 wickets as the hosts levelled the series heading to the last couple of games next weekend at St. Lucia. Had it not been for a captain's knock of 95 from MS Dhoni, and his 101 run stand for the 9th wicket (yes you heard right) with RP Singh, the damage could have been much worse. The West Indies chased down the target with ease with almost 16 overs to spare as openers Chris Gayle and Runako Morton stroked superb half-centuries much to the delight of the full house at Sabina Park.

Here's the full story...

MS Dhoni won the toss again today and made the same decision as he did in the 658 run thriller at Sabina Park just a couple of days ago. Both teams made a change to their bowling line-up, Ishant Sharma who has been expensive right through the T20 World Cup, and in the opening match of the competition was made to finally sit out in favour of swing bowler Praveen Kumar, while for the West Indies Ravi Rampaul made an inspired return to the side in place of Lionel Baker.

The pitch was the same one on which the teams played the first ODI, but it did appear to have been heavily watered, and bore a rather blackish tinge.

Gautam Gambhir and Dinesh Karthik once again came out to open the innings, however there were to be no heroics from Karthik (4) today, as he fell to a gorgeous outswinger from Jerome Taylor off just the fifth ball of the match. Gambhir (0) joined Karthik back in the pavilion a couple of legal deliveries (and two wides) later, as he got edged a wide delivery down to Ramdin.

The Windies dream start got even better as Rohit Sharma, who didn't seem to be watching the match so far, edged the ball through to Ramdin. The West Indies keeper made a hash of it, but fortunately the catch was gulped down by an excited Runako Morton at second slip. India were shockingly at 7 for 3 at the end of just the second over.

In desperate need of a partnership, India had their most experienced pair out in the middle in the persons of Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. While Dhoni blocked from one end, Yuvraj played his normal game, putting the bad balls away to the fence with ease. Coming off his mega innings of 131 in the first one day international, Yuvraj looked in awesome form racing to 35 from 32 balls.

However, calamity struck again for India, as Yuvraj chased an ultra-wide delivery and only succeeded in finding a thick edge through to Ramdin who made no mistake with the catch. 55 for 4 soon became 58 for 5 as Yusuf Pathan (0) was caught out by a short delivery from Dwayne Bravo, only succeeding in popping it up to Chris Gayle at first slip.

Young Ravindra Jadeja looked like he might be just the man to keep Dhoni company, but the left-hander became Rampaul's third victim of the innings playing the ball almost off the face of the bat to Ramdin who took his fourth catch of match.

With India staring into a deep abyss at 70 for 6, the cavalier Harbhajan Singh was the latest partner for Dhoni, but he too failed to rescue India for once, falling caught behind fishing outside the off-stump. Praveen Kumar added just one more to the Indian total, going for an unnecessary back foot drive to hand Rampaul career best figures of 4 for 37 from his 10 overs.

With India tottering at 82 for 8, Dhoni decided to take the batting powerplay and chance his arm rather than risk running out of partners at the other end with next to nothing on the board. Though he did get 9 runs from a Suleiman Benn over, the runs didn't really flow freely for India. However, Dhoni did ensure that India finally went through a phase without a wicket going down.

RP Singh played with a mixture of responsibility and luck, playing and missing on sufficient occasions to ensure that India would come as close to batting out the 50 overs as possible, an outcome that seemed very distant at the end of the 22nd over.

Going at a steady rate of 3.5 runs an over, Dhoni brought up his half century off 87 balls in the 35th over. RP Singh continued to hang on to his end. A few overs later they brought up their 50 partnership as Singh with 9 runs from 46 balls continued to keep Dhoni company. In the 43rd over the pair would bring up the 150 of the innings, a far cry from the 339 on Friday, but certainly something for the Indian bowlers to try and defend.

The waiting game paid off for RP as he played a beautiful lofted off-drive for six in the 45th over as India started to get a move on in their pursuit of somehow sneaking through to 200. Dhoni too was credited with a maximum in the following over as Ravi Rampaul made a mess of a catch at long-on, only succeeding in palming the ball onto the boundary rope.

The West Indies finally brought back their trump card Jerome Taylor in the 47th over. Taylor, who had started the rot in the first over still had two up his sleeve, and surely the hosts had missed a trick in not bringing him back earlier to bowl to RP Singh in the hope of wrapping up the innings. The West Indies instead had sat on their commanding position and had let the game drift in the hope that a wicket would fall on its own. A wide from Taylor brought up the 100 partnership, only the fifth ever for the 9th wicket in the history of the game.

Dwayne Bravo who also wasn't allowed to bowl out in that great phase for the West Indies finally ended RP Singh's long vigil of 75 balls and over 100 minutes at the crease with a bouncer that the Indian tail-ender was in no position to pull. Last man in Ashish Nehra survived the three balls left in the over, but MS Dhoni was sadly denied a well deserved century as he fell for 95 in the 49th over to a slower ball from Jerome Taylor.

India had managed to scrape their way to 188, surely not good enough against a side which made 319 on this same pitch on Friday.

 

After Chris Gayle had played out a solid first over from Praveen Kumar (a maiden that conceded four leg byes), Runako Morton scored the first runs off the bat with a resounding slap through point off the first ball he faced. Gayle got into the act in the third over, helping himself to a couple of boundaries, including one which almost took Praveen Kumar's head off on its way to the fence. Nehra was taken out of the attack by Dhoni after just the one over, as he brought on RP 'Swing' in an effort to extract any movement from the pitch. After coasting through to 37 for no loss from 7 overs without ever looking troubled, the West Indies exploded in the 8th over as the returning Nehra was taken for 16 by Gayle including two fours and a six.

Dhoni quickly brought on his spinners in the 9th over in the hope of buying a wicket, but Gayle was having none of it, hitting Yusuf Pathan for a couple of boundaries. The West Indies wiped out half of their target by just the 15th over as an annihilation looked on the cards. A four and a six off consecutive deliveries brought up the 100 run opening partnership with Gayle racing to 63 from just 44 balls. However much to the dismay of the home crowd, the man who lives by the sword died by it as well, hitting the second ball of part-time offspinner Rohit Sharma's first over to Gautam Gambhir at wide long-off, who took a stunning diving catch on the boundary.

Sarwan came in to replace Gayle, and went about knocking the runs off with Runako Morton with ease. Morton had played the perfect foil to Gayle so far, and did the sensible thing by dropping anchor and continuing to bat through the innings. Sarwan fell for 15, trying to charge down the track to Rohit Sharma, ending up missing the ball completely leaving Dhoni with an easy stumping.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul was the last West Indian to get a pleasant bat in the sunshine with the Windies needing just 56 more to win from 28 overs. They wrapped up the match in style with 95 balls still remaining as Morton played an outstanding innings of responsibility to guide his side to victory. He smashed the winning runs, a six off Harbhajan Singh to remain unbeaten on 85.

In the end a disappointing performance by the Indians with both bat and ball, they lost their way in the first couple of overs and never really recovered. There seems to be a long overdue resurgence in West Indies cricket in the air, and one hopes that they can carry their good form to the Beausejour Cricket Grounds where the two teams resume their battle on Friday.

 

Mini Scorecard:
India 188 all out (48.2 overs, 3.88 rpo)
Dhoni 95 (130)         Rampaul 4-37
Yuvraj 35 (33)          Bravo 3-26 (9)

West Indies 192/2  (34.1 overs, 5.61 rpo)
Gayle 64 (46)            Sharma 2-27 (8)
Morton 85* (102)

Read about the first one-day international in the series

File Photograph: ICC T20 World Cup

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