Thursday, July 2, 2009

India draws first blood, courtsey Yuvraj

Who have thought that West Indies will reach as closer as 319 runs in reply to India 339/6? At end of 42nd Over of West Indian innings the match almost looks like in the hands of India with West Indies requiring another 75 runs in the last 8 overs with three wickets in hand.

But West Indies wicket keeper batsman Dinesh Ramdin (29 runs of 26 balls) and D.Bernard (19 runs of 20 balls) kept West Indies in hunt with 44 runs partnership of just 32 balls for the eighth wicket before comeback man Ashish Nehra removed Bernard to bring India right back into the game. He also removed Dinesh Ramdin to close the match for India.

No body thoughts that West Indies lower order batsman will fight till the end. Despite of loosing wickets at regular Interval they were always ahead of India scores. But in the end it was Yuvraj inning that made the difference. With help of Yuvraj Singh brilliance India collected 62 runs without loosing a wicket in batting powerplay on the other hand West Indies manage 36 runs for the lost of three wickets in their batting powerplay and in the end this was the vital difference between two teams.

Earlier after electing to bat first India were struggling at 32/2in the 8th over. Once again Indian top orders were tested by short pitch stuff from West Indies pace attack. After giving India a steady start opener Gautam Gambhir (13 runs of 14 balls) and Rohit Sharma (4 runs of 12 balls) got out by short pitch delivery.

Yuvraj Singh joined D.Karthik to rebuild the innings from 32 for 2. His approach made up for the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Suresh Raina and allayed fears of weakness in the batting order. Yuvraj revived the Indian innings by adding 135 with Karthik for the third wicket and then 86 runs in just 57balls with Captain M.S.Dhoni(41 runs of 46balls), both partnership that laid the platform for only the second ODI total in excess of 300 in Jamaica.

In the end Yusuf Pathan (40 runs of 38balls) and Harbhajan Singh (19 runs of 13balls) played well to get pass India total close to350 runs mark.

Yuvraj Singh was declared Player of the Match for his blistering knock of 131 runs of just 102 balls.

Match Summary (India won by 20 Runs)
India – 339/6 in 50 Overs
Yuvraj Singh- 131 Dinesh Karthik– 67
D. Bravo– 10-0-66-2 D.Bernard- 8-0-50-1
West Indies– 319/10 in 48.1 Overs
S.Chanderpaul- 63 R.Srawan– 45
Ashish Nehra– 7.1-0-49-3 Yusuf Pathan- 8-0-56-3

India tour of West Indies 2009 Cricket Schedule

Just after the completion of 2nd edition of twenty20 World Cup in England, Indian team will tour Caribbean for four match ODI series against the West Indies. The first two ODI's of the series will be played in Jamaica while next two ODI's will be played in St Lucia.

India will play their first one day international on 26th June 2009. And the rest of three one day internationals will be played on 28th June, 3rd July and 5th July 2009.

All the matches will be telecast in India by Tensports TV Channel.

India Vs West Indies Schedule (All timing are mentioned in GMT+05:30)

Timing

Teams

Venue

Fri 26 Jun

20:00 PM

1st ODI – India v West Indies

Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica

Sun 28 Jun

20:00 PM

2nd ODI – India v West Indies

Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica

Fri 3 Jul

19:00 PM

3rd ODI – India v West Indies

Beausejour Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia

Sun 5 Jul

19:00 PM

4th ODI – India v West Indies

Beausejour Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia


Indian Squad: MS Dhoni (Captain/WK), Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Yusuf Pathan, M Vijay, S Badrinath, RP Singh, Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Abhishek Nayar, Ashish Nehra, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik (WK).

West Indies Squad for first two ODI's:Chris Gayle (Captain), Denesh Ramdin (WK), Lionel Baker, Darren Bravo, Dwayne Bravo, Sulieman Benn, David Bernard, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Runako Morton, Ravi Rampaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome Taylor.